Chuck versus the Second Chance
by KuryakinGirl
Summary: Nothing is quite what it seems but one thing is certain: family is everything.  Follows Chuck versus the Paranoia, Chuck versus the False Alarm, Chuck versus the Saint, and Chuck versus the Plan B
1. Prologue

Disclaimer—Recognizable characters belong to Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. No copyright infringement intended. Any similarity to events or persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

Author's Notes—Talk about a crazy long arc. Thanks, everybody, for continuing to put up with me, particularly since I had hoped to get this posted in its entirety before Season 4 started. Whoops... Many thanks to Brandywine00 for her incredible talents she so graciously lets me pester. Thanks to GoddessofBirth for letting me bounce titles off her, and for providing the winner. And thanks to the best surrogate big sister ever, Raevon. Love you tons, Sis!

Follows Chuck versus the Paranoia, Chuck versus the False Alarm, Chuck versus the Saint, and Chuck versus the Plan B. Bringing us around to end of Season 3 cannonish here. Because, if Ellie knew about Casey from sometime in early season 3, Justin's lies never would've worked.

Spoilers—Through the end of Season 3, with a very definite twist.

Chuck versus the Second Chance—Nothing is quite what it seems, but one thing is certain: family is everything.

* * *

He stood on the front porch, glancing around. This wasn't their first choice but it was their only choice at the moment. They needed to orchestrate something, and they couldn't do it from nothing. They had to move a few pieces, sacrifice a few pawns to ensure that their king won. And so he stood on the front porch, holding a blue file folder filled with top-secret information.

The woman that opened the door was understandably cautious. "Can I help you?" she asked.

"Yes, ma'am. I'm looking for Kathleen McHugh."

"And you are?" she asked, looking over the sandy-haired man, taking in the suit. Nothing too fancy but it wasn't ill-fitting either. He looked like he belonged in a suit. But, she'd had a strange enough year with people in and out of her home that she wasn't about to take a chance.

He held up his left hand, open and empty. "Reaching for my ID," he assured her before pulling a tanned leather wallet from his interior suit pocket. He held it out to her.

She regarded him coolly.

He nodded slightly.

She took it with one hand, flipping it open. The sunlight glinting off the badge was impressive as was the name of his agency. She looked up at him curiously. "CIA?"

"Agent Justin Sullivan. I was wondering if I could talk to you for a moment. It's of the utmost, dire importance."

She hesitated for a moment but handed him back his ID and opened her door wider. "Come in, Agent Sullivan."

"Thank you, Ms. McHugh."

She rubbed at the back of her neck, guiding him towards her living room couch. "I'm not sure what the CIA would want with me..."

"This has to do with someone from your past. Someone who very much wants to interfere with your present," he said as they both sat down.

She looked at him disbelievingly. "Okay..."

"Alex Coburn."

She inhaled sharply. "Come... come again?"

"Alex Coburn, your high school sweetheart, correct? Your fiancé at one point in time?"

She nodded. "He died in 1989."

"Actually, he didn't," he said. He opened the file folder he'd brought with him. The pages within were the personnel records for one John Casey, formerly known as Alexander Coburn. Included in the dossier were photographs that spilled out onto the cushion between them. "Sorry about that," he said, though the action had been intentional.

Kathleen reached out numbly, selecting the top folder from the stack that had fallen. "This is the restaurant where my daughter works..."

"And the man seated there," he said, pointing towards the table by the wall with an adequate view of the front windows and all doors. "He's told her his name is John Casey. But it's not. It's Alexander Coburn."

"He... He died," she said again dumbly.

"We tried to protect you," Justin said softly. "He was a... a loose cannon within the Marines. He was trying to get into black ops, special forces... There's a certain degree of physical and mental toughness required for those kinds of assignments. He just wasn't making the cuts. He was furious. His old commanding officer discharged him dishonorably. That's why he adopted this new name. And recently..." He drew a ragged breath. "Recently, he found his old CO." Justin sifted through the pile of photographs, selecting one he knew would illicit the required response. "Once he found him, he killed him. Due to his mental instability, it was determined that the information you had, that you were pregnant... for the safety of yourself, of your daughter, he was never told. I can only assume that he tortured your former savior, the CO, and found out about the daughter..." He drew a slow breath. "He has been stalking her."

Her hands were trembling. Her heart pounded in her chest. "What... I... That wasn't... That wasn't my Alex..."

"The discharge probably caused the mental break," Justin said.

"What... what do I do? How can... How can I help?"

"Well, I think it's best to take your daughter into protective custody until we can subdue him, have him arrested."

"My daughter?"

Justin nodded.

"What... what about me?"

"Well, it seems as though he's not interested in rekindling an old romance. He's been spotted around town with another woman. This woman," he said, selecting a third photograph.

Kathleen looked at the younger woman in scrubs coming out of a local hospital.

It just... it just _didn't_ sound like her Alex. Her Alex who had dreams and desires to follow in his father's footsteps, who wanted to make his family, his country proud. Her Alex who wanted to save the world, not destroy it.

But, war did strange things to people. She thought she'd be able to handle whatever it did to her future husband. She'd been so young and naive. She needed to protect her daughter. She looked up at Justin slowly. "You can keep her safe?"

He nodded.

Kathleen took a slow breath, looking again at the photos she held in her hand. The one of the doctor, the one of the dead man, and the one of her child with her former love. "Okay," she whispered.

Justin gathered up the photographs, snatching them out of her hand, putting them back in the folder and closing it. "I'll be in touch."

* * *

Stay tuned...

Lines from the next installment:

"Casey..."

He waited. His partner, Sarah Walker, didn't immediately continue her sentence. "Walker?"

"You're needed at the Castle," she said finally.

That was decidedly strange and unlike her, he decided. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah. Just, new mission, something a little... something a little different."

"All right. I'll be right there," he said before ending the call.

Ellie could see the confusion and concern in his blue eyes. "What is it?"

"Don't know yet," he said. "But, I have to go."

Duty called. Ellie understood. She was a doctor. Half the time she was running off after her own pager. She looked at the scattered targets on the floor, the spent ammunition. "I'll clean up."

Casey hesitated.

"International emergency. Go," she said, smiling softly at him.


	2. Chapter 1

For notes and disclaimer, please see part one.

Here's a couple things you might need to know or maybe you just forgot: Justin Sullivan approaches Kathleen McHugh with information about her former fiance, who isn't so dead after all. He convinces her that John Casey, formerly Alex Coburn, is a bad guy after her daughter. Kathleen agrees to allow Justin to take Alex McHugh into protective custody.

* * *

She pulled the ear protectors off, glancing at him from behind the yellow-tinted safety goggles. His face was unreadable as he brought the target forward. She was well aware of how poorly she continued to do, even after three weeks worth of lessons at a civilian gun range. She wished he'd just go ahead and tell her what she was going wrong instead of having to look at the placement of the bullet holes first.

John Casey eyed the hits. Two low, one miss. She was getting better. Wordlessly, he removed that target, scribbling her score on the top and adding it to the pile at his feet.

"Well?" Eleanor-Ellie-Bartowski asked.

He glanced at her, seeing the eager questions in her eyes. It was an adorable expression. It was part of the reason why he was taking his sweet time getting back to her. After every target, without fail, she had the same look. "Well," he said finally, "you're still not breathing."

"Not... Not breathing? If I weren't breathing, I'm pretty sure I'd be on the ground."

"Not in general. When you pull the trigger."

"And that's bad?"

"A gun should be an extension of you. It shouldn't affect your other natural processes."

"Like breathing," she said.

He nodded. "Want to try again?"

She took a slow breath, trying to find her calm center. "One more."

He loaded another paper target and sent it back to the end of the range. "You're doing great, by the way," he said as she started to cover her ears again. He saw the smile dawn on her lips and knew she'd heard his praise.

She raised the gun, locking her arms out in front of her. She squared her hips with her shoulders and made sure her feet were planted. She aimed carefully. _Breathe_, she told herself. She squeezed the trigger three times before lowering the gun again.

Casey removed his earplugs and started to pull the target forward but, after she put the gun on the counter, she put a hand on his arm. He looked at her questioningly.

"How'd I do?"

"Won't know till I bring the target back."

"John..."

He stopped, stilling, looking at her. There was more concern this time around. There was no point in delaying the inevitable now that her expression had changed. "You're still holding your breath."

She sighed, disappointed.

"It just takes practice, Ellie."

"Would you show me again?" She picked up the gun, offering it to him.

"Same target?"

"I don't think the paper man minds," she said, glancing at the inky outline.

He offered a slightly amused grunt. "Fair enough."

Ellie held the protective muffs over her ears and watched closely as Casey took easy control of the situation. His movements were fluid, precise and impressive. After the first squeeze of the trigger, she remembered she wanted to watch his chest, to see when he took his breaths. By the time her eyes drifted away from his muscular arms, the second shot fired. By the time she found his chest, he'd fired the final shot and lowered his arms. "Wait, wait..."

"What?"

"I missed it!"

"Missed what?"

"I..." She cleared her throat. "I got distracted, but I meant to watch when you were breathing."

He quirked an eyebrow at her. "Distracted? By what?"

She could see the playfulness in his blue eyes and wasn't about to admit to the truth. "Just... distracted," she insisted. "Would you please shoot again?"

"Well, that depends," he said evenly.

"On what?"

"On whether or not you tell me what distracted you."

She shook her head. "Can't do that."

"Then, I'm afraid I can't shoot again," he said, putting the gun on the counter.

"But... what if I said please?" she asked, sliding closer to him.

"Same conditions apply."

She let out a very exaggerated sigh.

He smirked teasingly as he leaned down to whisper in her ear. "Is it that hard to answer?"

She shivered at the sensations of his warm breath on her skin.

They both grimaced, however, when his cell phone began its electronic bleat. He brushed a brief kiss on her earlobe before straightening up and answering his phone. The change in his voice was instant. He'd gone from loving and soft to harsh and professional. "Yeah?"

"Casey..."

He waited. His partner, Sarah Walker, didn't immediately continue her sentence. "Walker?"

"You're needed at the Castle," she said finally.

That was decidedly strange and unlike her, he decided. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah. Just, new mission, something a little... something a little different."

"All right. I'll be right there," he said before ending the call.

Ellie could see the confusion and concern in his blue eyes. "What is it?"

"Don't know yet," he said. "But, I have to go."

Duty called. Ellie understood. She was a doctor. Half the time she was running off after her own pager. She looked at the scattered targets on the floor, the spent ammunition. "I'll clean up."

Casey hesitated.

"International emergency. Go," she said, smiling softly at him.

Idly, he wondered what he'd do without her. Before he left, though, he leaned in, stealing a real kiss from her lips.

Ellie let herself get lost in the sensation for only a moment. Her hand found his and she laced her fingers with his briefly. She swallowed the whimper at the loss of contact.

"I'll call you when I can," he promised.

She nodded. "Love you."

He offered her a real smile. They were rare, usually reserved just for her. "Love you, too."

* * *

Sarah kept looking at the evidence laid out. It couldn't be. There was absolutely no way. He had to have been framed.

Chuck Bartowski watched her. She kept leafing through the photos, kept rearranging them on the table. From time to time, she'd wander over to the computer, type a few things in, and then go back to her photo rearranging. He wasn't sure how any of this could help, but, he rationalized, she'd been at this longer than he had.

If anyone knew how to figure it out, it would be her.

He just really hoped she'd figure it out before General Diane Beckman got there.

Beckman stood barely five feet, but she carried around enough chutzpah for generals three times her size. And when she was angry, she could be downright Hulk-like.

He kept glancing at his watch. She was supposed to be arriving within the next ten minutes. Casey, coming from the gun range, given the usual Monday morning traffic patterns... He winced, realizing that Casey wouldn't be there until after the General and her entourage of agents arrived.

"We can't call him back?" he asked.

"Beckman will know we tipped him off," Sarah said, still staring at the photos.

"But-"

"If she sees his reaction to the news, sees that he's just as shocked as we are, it'll look best."

"I really don't care how it looks, Sarah. I care that the big guy is about to walk into a twelve-foot thick wall of... of... _insanity_. And _we're_ the ones who are going to let him be blindsided!"

"There's nothing we can do, Chuck," Sarah said, looking up at him.

The look on her face was doubly shocking to him. And he'd had enough shocks that day to last him a lifetime already. She looked defeatist. Like they'd already lost.

He wasn't about to give up hope, though, not yet. He couldn't.

Both agents turned as the entrance from the Orange Orange hissed open. Six men in suits entered first, thundering down the metal stairs into the Castle, followed by Beckman, followed by six more men.

Beckman glanced over the railing at Sarah and Chuck. There was no gleam of compassion, of understanding. There was only harsh, cold reality.

And it made Chuck swallow hard.

"Where is Colonel Casey?" she asked coolly.

"He's on his way, General," Sarah reported.

Beckman looked at the six men in front of her. "Secure all other exits." They scattered. She looked at the men behind her. "Be prepared for anything."

"Yes, ma'am," they chorused.

Chuck crossed his arms over his chest. There was _no way_ that Casey had done this. No way on Earth.

* * *

Casey let himself into the Orange Orange and didn't think anything about breezing past the counter and into the back of the yogurt shop. He stopped only briefly at the security door, stilling for a retinal scan and placing his thumb on the biometrics scanner. The door opened and he walked in, wondering what could be going on. Walker's voice had been so strange, so different. So not normal.

He'd had plenty of time to wonder about it on the drive over.

He hadn't jumped to any conclusions. There was no point in it. Whatever the mission was, he was sure he wouldn't like it anymore than she did.

As he descended the stairs, he slowed down, spotting Beckman in the center of the room. "General?"

"Colonel Casey..."

He glanced at Sarah and Chuck, who were both leaning against the wall, their arms crossed over their chests. "What's going on?"

"Colonel Casey, you are under arrest," said one of Beckman's detail, approaching the larger man with a set of handcuffs.

"On what charge?" he demanded. He didn't back up the stairs. He remained still, but he wanted to know what the _hell_ he was being arrested for.

The large screen at the front of the room filled with the evidence photos Sarah had been trying to sort out before Beckman arrived. The photos rotated. A broken window. Clear signs of struggle, overturned furniture. Bloodstained carpeting. The glass smashed in a framed photograph of a teenage girl and her mother.

Casey's fear was all-consuming as he recognized the girl in the photo. "Alex?" He looked at Sarah. "Something happened to Alex? Where is she!"

"That's what we're hoping you can tell us, Colonel. Since the CIA is reporting that _you_ took her," Beckman said coldly.

"Why would I kidnap my own daughter?" he asked. He struggled to remain calm as he heard the familiar metallic clink of the cuffs as they were tightened over his wrists. "Walker... Bartowski..."

Sarah looked down.

Chuck looked squarely back at him.

"I didn't do this, General," he said as the agent removed his sidearm from the back of his jeans, patting him down for any additional weapons.

"There's a partial print, your right index finger, on the exterior windowsill," Chuck said.

"Bartowski!" snapped Beckman.

"And Kathleen is claiming that you scoped out the house, that you were even in the house..." Chuck said.

There was no way. He'd seen her eyes when she'd opened them after the Laudinol incident. There was absolutely _no _recognition. She hadn't remembered him, not at all.

"That you found out you were the father, that you snapped-"

"Remove Colonel Casey from this room _now_," Beckman ordered, her small voice thundering through the room. "Agent Bartowski, one more word from you and _you _will be in a cell as well."

Chuck quieted.

As Casey was hustled through the room, however, he looked at Chuck. With his head turned away from Beckman, only Sarah and Chuck could see that he mouthed words at them: _Protect Ellie. This isn't right._

_

* * *

_

She sat on an uncomfortable wooden crate, exhausted. She'd been grabbed in the middle of the night but she didn't dare trust any of them enough to sleep.

The only solace she had was that it hadn't been an easy task for the men that took her. She put every skill from her self-defense classes to good use. She hesitated to think what her bedroom looked like after her wild kicks and elbows, but she'd worry about the clean up when she got out of here.

Wherever here was.

She was vaguely aware she was near the subway. She could hear the rattle of trains and, given the coolness of the temperature and the lack of the windows, she imagined she was underground.

The black-haired man entered again, the one who was almost kind in his cruelness.

He offered her an easy smile, one that might've been handsome had it come from someone who wasn't holding her against her will. "Morning, Alex."

She didn't say anything.

"This will all be over soon, trust me."

_When pigs fly_, she thought.

"You can thank your father for this. But it'll all be over before you know it."

"I don't have a father," she said.

"Everyone's got a father. Fathers are the key to this little mystery," he told her.

"Well, mine's dead, all right? He died before I was born."

"That's what you think?"

"That's what I _know_," she insisted.

"It's amazing, what people tell each other," he said, leaning against the door. "What lies they perpetuate. And they all hurt, don't they, Alex?"

She narrowed her eyes slightly.

He smiled. "You look just like your father when you do that."

"My father," she said, slower this time, "is _dead_."

"If that were true, you wouldn't be here. You'd be back at home, getting ready for classes, getting ready for your little self-defense course. It's not a bad one, really. You were more prepared than I thought you'd be."

She looked away from him.

"Gave two of my guys mild concussions. That's impressive, coming from a girl your size, your stature. But, given who your father is, I really shouldn't be surprised. Alex Coburn was one of our best."

"Alex Coburn was a patriot, who died in combat in 1989," she said, her jaw tight.

"That's a nice bedtime story. If only it were true."

"Get it through your thick skull, mister! I have no father! He's dead! So, would you _please_ just... just let me go. We'll forget this ever happened."

"Get it through yours, sweetheart. Your father is alive and he's part of the problem I'm trying to neutralize. And, with your help, _I'll_ succeed."

* * *

Chuck nervously kept an eye on everyone around them. When he was somewhat certain that there was no one in earshot, he asked Sarah very quietly: "What did he say?"

"What?"

"When Casey was being led away. What did he say? I know you read lips. I couldn't make it out." Chuck wondered why that little skill wasn't in the Intersect. He wondered if he could get it programmed in an update sometime.

Sarah, just to make sure, took a glance around the Castle as well before she spoke. "Protect Ellie," she said.

Chuck stood up a little straighter. "You think they might be after Ellie? Whoever took Alex?"

"With our orders being focused internally only, at Casey, I'd say we're going to miss who really took her. I imagine that's what Casey's thinking, too."

He looked at his watch. "I've got to get to the Buy More..."

"If you go out on an install..."

Chuck looked at Sarah questioningly.

"Leave your watch at the store," she said, glancing back at Beckman.

He offered her a brief, albeit somewhat grim, smile.

* * *

She was tossed into the room. She wasn't sure the last time they'd let her feet touch the ground. In the car, she guessed.

Ellie had tried desperately to keep track of the turns, to see if she could remember the way here, so she could be helpful, but she'd been disoriented when they'd grabbed her at the gun range.

Her emotions ran rampant, from fear to concern, from pain to panic. She really wanted to scream, to call out, to try to get help, but the more rational side of her head won out. While Casey had taught her so much about staying calm, about self-defense, she wasn't perfect. She wasn't a spy. She was just a doctor with a moderate bump to the noggin after being thrown into a nondescript van.

She'd struggled against the arms that had carried her inside. She knew she was inside as she'd heard doors close. But, she'd been blindfolded, bound. It wasn't handcuffs. It had been ropes, tight ones at that. She hadn't been able to remove the blinders from her eyes or to even hit the button on the side of her watch twice.

She got to her feet when the door slammed. It wasn't easy. She'd had to back up, to find a wall and inch her way upwards. She was awkwardly balanced with her hands tied behind her back.

The door opened again and Ellie remained at the wall, standing completely still.

"Dr. Bartowski," said the voice pleasantly. "Nice to meet you."

Ellie bit the inside of her cheek to keep from saying anything.

"This doesn't have to be an unpleasant experience. There's only one thing we need."

She scoffed.

"You don't believe me?" He crossed towards her.

Hearing the approaching steps, she tried desperately to back up, but found herself in the corner.

He chuckled softly. "Not going to hurt you," he said, reaching out to take the blindfold from her eyes. "There."

Ellie winced away from the light, her eyes so used to the darkness. Blinking a few times, she looked at her captor.

He was a sandy-haired man in a suit, who looked rather out of place in the dingy, dank cinder block room. "Hi," he said, knowing she was looking at him. "So, here's the thing, Dr. Bartowski. The one thing I need is the location of your father. You give that to me... no problems. You're released. You can go back to your normal life."

"My father?" she asked. Of all the people she figured they were trying to get to, she never would've imagined her father was the target. Casey, sure. Chuck, definitely. But, her father? The absent-minded scientist? "What do you need with him?"

"Doesn't matter," he said, easing his hands into his pants pockets. "We just do. Let me know where we can find him... and that's it. We'll drop you off at home, just like nothing ever happened."

"I don't know where he is."

His pleasantness faded. "Then, we have a problem, don't we?"

* * *

Chuck didn't stay long at the Buy More but he did exactly what Sarah suggested, leaving his watch in the locked drawer in the Nerd Herd desk. He tried Ellie's cell phone, but got nowhere. He tried the home number, but she wasn't there either.

"She must be at the hospital," he muttered, dialing the number for Westside. Frustrated and annoyed, he tossed his phone in the passenger seat when all it did was ring and ring. "They're just busy," he said, trying to convince himself that was the case.

She could be in the shower. She could be ignoring the phone. She could be... miles from here, unable to get help. She could be in trouble, she could be hurt...

He struggled to put those thoughts out of his head, but he kept coming back to them, back to dwelling on the fact that his spy life had officially seeped into his personal one, that his sister, his closest family member, was in danger because of him.

He was so lost in his torturous thoughts that he almost missed the turn for the apartment building in Echo Park. When he reached the complex, he quickly parked the Nerd Herder and raced to Ellie's apartment. He knocked ferociously on the door. "Ellie? El, c'mon, sis, it's Chuck..." He pounded a little harder, frustrated that there was no answer. "Sis..."

Morgan strolled into the courtyard, in his assistant manager vest and khakis, his messenger bag slung over his chest. "Hey, buddy."

"Morgan! Morgan, have you seen Ellie?"

He shook his head. "Not since early this morning. Spotted her heading off with Casey. Figure those lovebirds were out for breakfast or something." Then he frowned. "What's wrong?"

"There's... I..." There was too much to say and too many potential ears. "You're headed to work?"

He nodded.

"Excellent, c'mon," he said, rushing back towards the Nerd Herder. He turned on the engine and cranked the radio up, full blast.

"Chuck?" he hollered over the bass-heavy beats coming from the speakers.

Chuck leaned in, whispering in his best friend's ear. "Don't have a lot of time, buddy. Casey's in trouble. Somebody took his daughter and now I can't find Ellie. I've got to get back before Beckman gets too suspicious. Can you check the hospital?"

Morgan looked up at Chuck, his eyes wide in shock. "Casey has a daughter?"

"Too long a story to explain. Just... help?" Chuck imploringly looked at his best friend in the whole entire world.

Morgan nodded. "Yeah, absolutely. You got it."

The taller geek clapped the assistant manager on the shoulder. "Let me know as soon as you learn anything."

* * *

Stay tuned...

Lines from the next installment:

"Ma'am, I didn't do anything. I did not take my daughter."

"I had to turn over the internal footage, the video surveillance from the apartment to the agent in charge of this investigation this morning. While I was permitted to view said footage, there's nothing that proves definitively that you remained in your quarters all night."

He started to shake his head, to answer, when she cut him off again.

"I'm not finished, Colonel! When where you going to tell me?"

"Ma'am?"

"About your personal relationship with the Intersect's sister?" Beckman noted well that it was the first time that Casey looked guilty. Her eyebrows slid up her forehead. "How do you think it makes me look? To be blindsided with this information from the CIA. Not your team, not you, but the _damned_ CIA?"


	3. Chapter 2

For notes and disclaimer, please see part one.

Here's a couple things you might need to know or maybe you just forgot: Casey's pleasant morning with Ellie at the gun range gets interrupted when he's summoned to the Castle. Beckman is there along with her own security team because they're arresting Casey for kidnapping his daughter. Casey doesn't know what's going on, and Sarah and Chuck are sure he's innocent. Alex isn't the only one apprehended, as Ellie is asked questions about her father by her kidnappers.

* * *

Morgan called "Big Mike" Tucker, the manager of the Burbank Buy More, and informed him that traffic was absolutely atrocious. There were accidents galore and it was bottle-necked and there was construction. The more thickly he laid it on, the more Big Mike, who was absently munching away at something-probably at his Subway English muffin breakfast sandwich-wanted to get off the phone.

And that was fine with Morgan. In fact, that was the whole plan. See? He could be a spy, too.

If only the rest of them could see that.

Morgan huffed as he pulled his Nerd Herder into the visitor's lot at the Westside Medical Center Emergency Room. He straightened his tie as he climbed out, crossing towards the entrance. He smiled broadly at the woman behind the desk, Donna. "Hi, there." He hoped he sounded suave and debonair. Because, if he could _talk_ like a spy, too, how cool would that be?

She glanced up, smiling politely, but with disinterest. "Can I help you?"

Morgan cleared his throat. Okay, so he had to work more on his Connery. "Yes, ma'am. I'm looking for Dr. Ellie Bartowski. Is she working this morning?"

Donna frowned, shaking her head. "No. It's my understanding that Dr. Bartowski is off today."

"Huh. Well, see, I'm her neighbor, sounds like she left her TV on and, boy, is it _blaring_. I tried knocking, tried calling, but she's not answering. Are you sure she didn't get buzzed in?"

Donna hit a few keystrokes on her computer, but she still shook her head. "I'm sorry. Dr. Bartowski wasn't paged."

"She wouldn't have, like, just popped in to say hi to somebody, would she? Pick up a paycheck? Clean her locker? Something...?"

Donna hesitated.

Morgan, his confidence fading fast, retreated to his normal geeky self. "Listen, Donna," he said, reading her name off her ID badge, "my name is Morgan and I'm her brother's roommate, okay, and I'm tryin' to look out for her, ever since, y'know, the thing with Devon, and I really don't want the landlord getting all _weird_ at her, y'know? Can you just page her? Just once, for me? Over the PA system, not, like, her actual _pager_ pager."

She grinned at his bumbling attempts. "All right." Picking up the telephone, she pressed a few buttons. Her voice echoed through the ER. "Dr. Bartowski to admitting. Dr. Bartowski, admitting."

Morgan smiled at her. "You are lovely, thank you."

"You're welcome," she said softly.

He waited in the waiting room. It was pretty _apt_, he decided. But after ten minutes, he didn't hear Ellie's voice, didn't see her cruising about the halls in scrubs with a stethoscope around her neck. He glanced back at Donna, who just shrugged. "Guess she's not here, huh?"

She shook her head.

"Okay." He waved a little before ducking back into the morning sunshine. He slid his cell phone from his pocket, calling the name on his first speed dial.

"Yeah, Morgan, you find her?" Chuck asked eagerly.

"That's just it, buddy. She's not at the hospital."

There was silence on the other end of the line for a minute.

"Maybe she's, like... getting her hair done? I mean, that can take a whole long time. Or she's shopping or out for a run or something... Just away from her cell phone?"

"Yeah, you're probably right," Chuck admitted. He was probably just being a worrywart. It just bothered him, that they couldn't reach her, particularly after Casey's request. "Sorry to send you out of your way."

"Hey, you know I'd do anything for you and Ellie."

Morgan could easily hear the smile in Chuck's voice: "You're the best, buddy."

* * *

Sarah took a moment, pushing her chair back from the computer terminal she was working at.

Chuck glanced over at her. "You okay?" he asked quietly.

"This doesn't even remotely make sense. All Casey's done is been protective of Alex since he found out," Sarah whispered.

"It's awfully convenient. There's no surveillance cameras in Kathleen McHugh's neighborhood, no ATM cameras, no traffic cameras. There's absolutely nothing that can definitively point to Casey except for a partial print?"

"And Kathleen's statement," Sarah said, wheeling the chair further back to snag a folder from the conference table behind them. She offered it to Chuck.

Chuck eased his black high-top Converse sneakers up on the counter, tipping back in his chair slightly as he opened it.

The report was signed off on by some agent he'd never heard of, and the name didn't trip the Intersect. Justin Sullivan. He'd remember it, though, from now on.

_I was contacted by Kathleen McHugh at approximately seven thirty this morning, who stated that her daughter was missing. Upon my arrival at the scene, it was clear that there had been a struggle in the upstairs bedroom at the home in an otherwise sleepy subdivision. Ms. McHugh indicated that she had discovered her former paramour was living after being led to believe that he had died in a military accident in 1989. She became aware of his existence shortly after an incident where she was taken hostage within her own home and suffered an injury about the head. Upon coming to, she stated that a man was hovering over her and, once her memory cleared, that she recognized him as one Alexander Coburn, her former lover and father of her child, nineteen year old Alexandra "Alex" McHugh. _

_ Ms. McHugh stated that she had since seen Mr. Coburn lurking around the premises since then and came to see him at the Pie Shack, the establishment where her daughter works to help pay for her college expenses. Ms. McHugh did not confront Mr. Coburn at any point due to his size and military background. However, it is her feeling that Mr. Coburn is behind the disappearance of her daughter._

_ After processing the crime scene, it was determined that a fingerprint found on the exterior windowsill of the missing child's bedroom belonged to one John Casey, Colonel, USMC currently assigned to the NSA on a top secret assignment of vital national security importance, reporting to General Diane Beckman, DNI. Colonel Casey is the current working alias of Alexander Coburn, father of the missing child._

Chuck slowly looked up at Sarah. "I don't see how this is enough to arrest Casey."

Sarah cautiously looked at the other agents milling about the Castle. It was nicer when it was only occupied by herself, Casey and Chuck. She wasn't used to having all these extra people around. "Keep your voice down, Chuck," she reminded gently.

"And," Chuck said, whispering, "I talked to Casey after the incident. There's no way she remembered him. There's _no_ way."

"We should go talk to her."

"There's an idea! There's a very good idea."

Sarah quietly and quickly logged out of her computer, grabbed her jacket and her purse, and walked casually with Chuck out of the Castle.

* * *

Casey sat in the interrogation room like a stone. He'd undergone a grueling questioning session for three hours where all he'd done, all he could do, was proclaim his innocence. Because it was the truth. But now, the only thing he could do was worry.

Who'd taken Alex? Why would someone want to take her? What did she have that could be valuable?

He closed his eyes as he wondered just how much intel his former commanding officer had been able to share with the Ring about the existence of his former fiance, of his daughter. Maybe this was some kind of payback for taking down the Ring Director? The Ring was still around, still as deadly as ever. Like with any company, where there was an executive director, there was a board as well. And, seemingly, the board had just replaced the director in the former one's absence.

Paris hadn't been completely for naught. Shaw was dead. Chuck had proven he could be a spy, a real spy. Casey felt some kind of pride regarding the kid's ability to protect himself, to protect Sarah. He knew that, when it mattered, when it really mattered, Chuck would be able to pull through and do what needed to be done, no matter how unseemly.

But, he knew, too, that Chuck didn't wish to be put in that kind of a situation ever again and, really, neither did Casey.

But those situations often found spies. Much like this one he had found himself in the middle of currently.

Chained to the desk in his own interrogation room, where he'd harassed, cajoled, and nearly tortured others for information before. He wondered if this was some kind of cosmic payback.

Opening his eyes again, he shoved his personal thoughts into the dark, deep recesses of his heart. He needed to look at the current events rationally, to detach himself from the more personal aspects and look at the matter through _spy_ eyes.

It was, without a doubt, a personal attack. But, it would've been enough to just kidnap his daughter. There would be no need to frame him for it, not without some other, ulterior motive.

Not unless whoever took her wanted to break up the team.

The team worked better as a single, cohesive unit. If they'd learned anything from having Shaw around, it was that. The three of them together, Chuck, Sarah, and Casey, they were nearly unbeatable.

But, now they were separated. He was facing a possible court marital. And Chuck and Sarah were probably out there... trying to save him.

There was something else going on, something big, and nobody wanted them to see it. "Hey!" he called out. He jerked at his restraints, feeling the metal pull against his wrist. "I need to speak with General Beckman! Right now!"

* * *

Ellie sat on the floor, her head against the cold wall. She wasn't entirely sure how long she'd been questioned, but it had been a while. A long while. Too long a while. Her head pounded. She was sure it was from a combination of reasons, the questioning, the kidnapping.

But, if Chuck could do it, so could she. She could be cool under pressure.

If Sarah could do it, so could she. She could find that inner strength.

If Casey could do it, so could she. All she needed to do was bide her time and stay calm.

The problem was, no matter how hard she thought about cookies or cakes or pies, her thoughts kept coming back to the harsh, glaring reality. She'd gone through more than her fair share of near-misses in the past year. The first one, she'd had Casey at her side, through the entire thing. The second, she hadn't been intentionally targeted. It had just happened. The third, it had been another random encounter. If she'd just left the bar three seconds sooner, maybe nothing would've happened.

But this... This time, she'd been singled out, away from Casey.

She couldn't press the button on her watch. She could barely move her wrists at all. The ropes were tight, nearly cutting off her circulation. No matter how she tried to loosen them, no matter how she tried to cut them, she couldn't. And she wasn't nearly dexterous enough to maneuver her fingers to find the button on the watch. The angle was just impossible.

* * *

Sarah could tell that Chuck was about to blow. She could see the vein in his forehead throbbing in the rear view mirror of her car. She could see the tightness of his jaw, the redness in his face. "Chuck..." They hadn't been able to talk to Kathleen, or even to get close. The CIA was under orders to keep Chuck and Sarah specifically at bay, so they had adjusted their plan.

"Nobody saw anything. Nobody. How does that happen? You figure, somebody's got to have a dog that needed to do some business, even at _really early_ in the morning, right? You figure... somebody had to have seen _something_. Or heard something!"

They'd interviewed every neighbor on the street and hadn't come up with anything to help Casey.

But, Sarah quickly shifted gears, changing lanes.

"Uh... Castle's not this way."

"No," Sarah said. "But home is."

"What's at home?"

"Casey's internal security cameras."

"What?"

"Casey's got the apartment complex wired for sound, doubly on the exterior angles after I told him about Lester and Jeff hanging around shortly after he started seeing Ellie," Sarah explained. "We'll access Casey's logs, prove that there's no way he could've slipped out in the middle of the night or early in the morning to do this."

"You're a genius!"

Sarah just smiled at him. "Plus, it'll give you a chance to see if Ellie's home now, too."

"Ellie..." Chuck pulled out his cell phone, dialing her number again. "C'mon, sis," he muttered as he listened to the rings.

"You've reached Dr. Bartowski. I'm sorry I can't come to the phone at the moment."

"Dammit," Chuck muttered, hanging up.

"Still nothing?"

"You don't think that's... a bad sign, do you? I mean... Morgan had a point this morning, she could be doing any number of things that are normal and well within her right to do."

"If worst comes to worst," Sarah said, "we can always activate her beacon."

Chuck nodded, feeling somewhat better.

* * *

She sighed heavily. She didn't have a father! How hard could that be to understand? Her father died, honorably, in service to his country. Her father was a patriot, a Marine. It was starting to get under her skin, thinking about what her captor had said.

The door opened again and that same black-haired man entered. The one who looked like he could be so gentle, so kind. The one with the easy smile, the one she almost wanted to smile back at. But, as soon as he opened his mouth, she realized he was _not_ a kind _anything._

He carried a file folder under his arm. "I'd like you to meet somebody, Alex," he said cordially.

She looked at him quizzically.

He dragged a folding metal chair across the floor.

She winced at the sound it made.

He eased into it, sitting directly in front of her. He opened the file, pulling out an eight-by-ten glossy photograph. "This... is your father. The man you _know_ as your father. Alex Coburn, war hero, right?"

She nodded. She'd seen that photo hundreds of times. It was taken shortly after he'd enlisted.

"Here's the thing, Alex. You've met him."

"No, I haven't," she insisted.

"You have. So have I." The next photo he removed was one of Casey and Ellie. "You've even met his girlfriend."

Alex slowly shook her head. "No, that's-"

"John, right? John Casey?"

She looked up at him, at the smugness, at the _creepiness_ in his expression.

"It's okay. You can admit it. See, John Casey didn't exist until 1989. Before that, he was Alex Coburn. He chose black ops. He abandoned you, he abandoned your mother... but now he's figured out who you are. He's brought the new would-be missus by for a chat and a cup of coffee."

Alex was shaking. There was no way he could be her father. There was no way she could _know_ her father without _realizing_ that it was her father. He was just a nice patron, a nice patron who took an interest in her schooling, who occasionally asked how her family was. He wasn't the only one who did that. There was retired Mr. Reynolds, who came by for coffee with cream and a slice of chess pie every Thursday. There was Mike, a beat cop, who took his coffee black, much like Casey, and who had a slice of whatever was handy...

But, seeing the photos next to each other, she was starting to see the resemblance. She was starting to see the same eyes, the same nose, the same mouth.

The scar was new, but everything else... everything else looked exactly the same.

"What must that feel like?" he asked, his voice cold and unfeeling. "To have your dad drop in without knowing he's your dad?"

Alex slowly looked up at him, her face a vision of turmoil.

* * *

Beckman watched him through the one-way mirror, seeing his agitated state. He kept calling out for someone, for his team, for her. He needed to talk with someone, someone with authority, someone who would understand. And that hadn't meant her security crew who she'd tried to send in. And she wasn't entirely sure where Chuck and Sarah had gone except to say that they were "running errands."

The discipline issues in the team were _staggering_.

With a heavy sigh, she entered the room.

Casey immediately stilled and snapped to salute.

She enjoyed the quiet for a moment before returning the gesture. "At ease, Colonel. As at ease as you can get," she said, glancing at his left hand attached to the table.

"Ma'am."

"Before you say _anything_, let me remind you of an incident... an incident where I told you that you were on _extremely _thin ice with regards to your career. Do you remember that day?"

He nodded.

"I told you one more move like that again, and you would be permanently removed from service. Do you recall that conversation?"

"Yes, ma'am," Casey said. It had been the absolute worst day of his life.

"Then, what the _hell_ did you do?" she demanded.

"Ma'am, I didn't do anything. I did not take my daughter."

"I had to turn over the internal footage, the video surveillance from the apartment to the agent in charge of this investigation this morning. While I was permitted to view said footage, there's nothing that proves definitively that you remained in your quarters all night."

He started to shake his head, to answer, when she cut him off again.

"I'm not finished, Colonel! When where you going to tell me?"

"Ma'am?"

"About your personal relationship with the Intersect's sister?" Beckman noted well that it was the first time that Casey looked guilty. Her eyebrows slid up her forehead. "How do you think it makes me look? To be blindsided with this information from the CIA. Not your team, not you, but the _damned_ CIA?"

Casey mentally rewound his day. There was nothing untoward in the courtyard that moment. Or the night before. There's no way they could've discerned that information from the past twelve or eighteen hours worth of footage. "Who else knew?"

"Doesn't matter! _Someone_ from Central Intelligence knew and told me!"

"With all due respect, ma'am, I think it is important."

* * *

When she got out of this-and it's definitely a _when_ and not an _if-_Ellie decided she was going to have Casey teach her more about self-defense. And she was going to pay way more attention. Not that the gun range lessons would help with this situation, but, in the future, it would be more beneficial to know some basic moves at the very least.

Her first question was going to be how to get her hands freed from ropes. She wouldn't be able to practice any of those maneuvers, not until the rope burns healed, but she could learn the theory before putting it into practice.

The door opened and slammed again and she was face to face with her captor, the sandy-haired man, again. "Where's your father?" he demanded.

"Your guess is as good as mine," she admitted.

"That's not good enough. You have to know how to contact him."

"Look, my dad is paranoid. I told you all of this in our first interrogation. I do not know where he is!"

"But, you talk to him?"

"Rarely," she admitted.

"Has he ever mentioned anything to you about the governor?"

She looked at him, absurd. "Come again?"

"The governor! Has he ever said anything to you about the governor, about where you could find it."

"Finding the governor?" she asked. "Oh, sure, that's an easy find."

"It is?"

"Just need a car," Ellie said with a nod.

He banged on the door twice. "Bring the cars around!" He looked back at her. "Where is it? What can you tell me about it?"

"About the governor?"

"Yes!" he said, clearly frustrated.

"Well, for being a staunch Republican, he married into the darling family of the Democrats, the Kennedys." Ellie wondered where the snark was coming from. Casey must've been rubbing off on her more than she'd realized before. "I imagine those dinner table conversations are-"

The frustration boiled quickly into anger, and his closed fist connected with her face.

She saw stars. She'd never fully known what that phrase had meant until she was sitting there, seeing the white lights explode in front of her eyes. And, she was fairly certain her mouth was bleeding.

* * *

Chuck and Sarah descended into the Castle without the video footage from the apartment. It had already been removed from the secure servers, and if Casey hid them in some personal storage folders, Chuck hadn't been able to find them in two hours.

Beckman glanced up when she heard their footsteps. "Well, it's about time, you two," she said, her arms akimbo. She looked at the rest of the agents in the confines of the base. "Everybody else, out."

No one immediately moved for the exits.

"You heard me!" she said, her voice thundering. "_Out_!"

The agents quickly dropped what they were doing and headed back up towards the Orange Orange, passing Chuck and Sarah on the stairs.

Beckman was shooting daggers at the two of them with her gaze.

Sarah swallowed hard. "General, if you'll give us a moment to-"

Another piercing glance from the tiny woman, however, and Sarah quieted.

Both watched, puzzled, as she crossed towards a computer terminal, pressing a few keystrokes. All of the screens within the Castle changed from the various images to the Directorate of National Intelligence logo.

"_Fix_ _this_," she said.

"Wh... General...?" Chuck asked.

Some of the keystrokes she pressed included opening Casey's door.

Beckman grabbed the keys from the conference table, tossing them at him. He caught them easily. With a pert nod from her, he set about freeing himself.

"Something's got to be up," Sarah said. "This feels wrong."

"Casey's an overgrown boyscout. He'd never do anything like this, not unless it was ordered by you," Chuck said, looking at Beckman.

"There's no proof to back up your _feelings_," Beckman said. "To fix this, I need evidence. I need to be able to take it back to the higher-ups and show that Casey had nothing to do with this. I can't take your emotions."

Casey emerged from the cell, joining them in the conference room. "We're missing something. A big something. This was a distraction. Somebody wanted us chasing our tails."

Before any of them could say anything else, an alarm sounded through the Castle, and one of the screens with the logo was overridden by a security beacon.

"That's one of our watches," Sarah said, glancing to see if she'd accidentally hit hers. When she realized she hadn't, she grabbed Chuck's wrist. "Not us. You?"

Casey immediately began punching in keys on the computer, pulling up the information. Ellie's driver's license photo appeared on the screen. "Dammit," he muttered. "She's in a warehouse, shipping district."

"It was a shell game, this whole time," Sarah said, shaking her head. "Alex was never the real target."

"I _told_ you to look after her!" Casey growled, rounding on Chuck.

"I was a little busy, big guy, thinking _you _were in real trouble and I was trying to help!"

"Enough!" yelled Beckman. "Until such time as we can suss out your innocence properly, Colonel Casey... I'm leaving you in the custody of Agent Walker."

All three looked at each other dumbly for a half a second then turned to the General.

"I'm letting you _go_. As officially as I can," she said. "Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't let any agent near a mission this personally charged. However, knowing what I know about each of you, you work better under these circumstances. Get moving! You've got _two_ civilians to rescue now."

* * *

Stay tuned...

Lines from the next installment:

On the screen she could see, very clearly, Alex, in a similar room, in a similar situation. Her eyes widened with a new fear as she looked up at her captor.

"Watch," he said with a sneer.

Alex winced as the black-haired man entered, in a smart-looking suit. The man held a gun to her head, pressing it to her temple.

"We had you pegged all wrong, Dr. Bartowski," came his cold, calculating voice through the monitor's speakers. "Your brother isn't one for personal pain, but he's been trained. He's been uploaded with the 2.0. He can handle it, whatever we throw at him. You? You're just a doctor. I mistakenly thought you could be broken easily. Well played, Ellie. I was wrong and that doesn't happen very often. I will always be the first to admit it, when it's true. So, there's a new plan now," he said, cocking the gun.

Alex whimpered, closing her eyes tightly.


	4. Chapter 3

For notes and disclaimer, please see part one.

Here's a couple things you might need to know or maybe you just forgot: Morgan finds out that Ellie's not been called into the hospital. Sarah and Chuck review the report on Alex's kidnapping, talk to potential witnesses and see about getting the video footage from the apartment complex, all to try to prove Casey's innocence. Alex's captor reveals to her who Casey really is. Ellie faces the wrath of her captor when she speaks flippantly. Beckman releases Casey into Sarah's custody until such time they can rescue Alex and Ellie.

* * *

"We have a problem."

Daniel Shaw was so tired of hearing that from Justin. He looked up at the sandy-haired man standing in his doorway. "What now?" he asked.

"Beckman released Casey."

Shaw let that sentence process slowly. "Released him?"

"Into Walker's custody."

Shaw actually smiled a little at the reference to Sarah. "While I would've preferred for the team to be completely broken, possibly at odds... I can't prevent every possibility." He leaned back in his chair. "Have you gotten Ellie to talk yet?"

Justin hesitated.

"I'll take that as a 'no.'" He stood, grabbing his suit coat from where it hung on a rack behind him.

"What... what's the plan?"

"I'm going to talk to your doctor friend," he said, slipping his jacket on and straightening the cuffs. "She's not a spy, she hasn't been trained."

"You might not think that, the way she reacts."

"Castle's entrance codes are still programmed only for Chuck, Sarah, and Casey. They haven't welcomed a doctor onto their team."

"What about Woodcomb?"

"Chuck's former brother-in-law is finishing his training at Langley. Not here in L.A., not with them."

"She's tougher than she looks," Justin warned.

"She's a Bartowski. She can't be that tough."

* * *

Chuck stood in the courtyard, looking at Ellie's closed door. It was like all the warmth of the apartment complex had somehow been sucked out into a black hole or swept out to sea.

Sarah's voice cut through his thoughts. "You need to tell your father."

He glanced back at her.

"You need to tell him about Ellie. And about the 2.0," she said as gently as she could.

Chuck closed his eyes tightly. While he knew she was right, he didn't want to think about how that conversation would go, about the arguments that would ensue after it.

"If there's anything we've learned from Beckman this morning, it's that keeping those who care about _us_ most in the dark... it's the worst thing in the world we can do for them, for ourselves."

"It's... It's not that easy, to get a hold of my father."

"But, can you?"

He nodded slowly.

She started to move towards Casey's apartment, to grab their gear, but he didn't follow. She glanced back at him. "Chuck?"

"It's... there's something else."

Her concern melted into confusion, and she tilted her head questioningly at him.

He swallowed hard. "Dr. Dreyfuss... I told you that he said there wasn't anything wrong."

"Yeah?"

"There's something wrong."

She crossed back towards him, gingerly easing to sit down on the edge of the fountain. He sat beside her, hesitantly taking her hand in both of his.

* * *

Casey worked swiftly, organizing weapons and ammunition, grabbing his flack jacket, his boots.

They hadn't been at the apartment complex long before there was a sharp rap at the door. Casey had been shocked to see his commanding officer, sans entourage, standing in the courtyard. He'd welcomed her in and she'd immediately set to work silently.

Beckman made sure all of the clips were full before adding them to his black duffel bag. She wasn't offering up any information as to why she was there, or why she'd let him go.

He could only assume it was for appearance's sake, but he wouldn't mind getting a straight answer.

She could feel his eyes on her and finally huffed. "Spit it out already."

"Why?"

It was a simple question and, for a moment, looking up at him, he reminded her of her own son. "I've known you a long time, John. I know you didn't do this. There are things that don't add up for me, either. Why we can't talk to Ms. McHugh. That CIA agent, Sullivan, he's got her on lock-down somewhere, to 'protect' her from us."

They went back to working silently for a moment, but only a moment.

"And because you're not so careless to leave a fingerprint _anywhere_. I doubt we'd find one in the Buy More twenty minutes after you left a cover shift."

He cracked a ghost of a smile.

"You can't stay alive in this job without developing a sixth sense about those kinds of things. It was a rookie mistake, one I know you wouldn't make. But, my say so isn't what goes. Those higher up the chain of command found it to be plausible. But, I have to ask... Why do it, John? Why risk the exposure? Why visit her?"

"I tried to stay away. I tried to keep my distance," he admitted. "It... When I found out where she worked, where she lived, the fact that she was here... I missed so much of her life, I didn't... I didn't know I had a daughter. I... I was going to tell her, this weekend, who I am. I've been working up toward it." He hated the way he sounded, the hesitation in his voice. But, he was starting to wonder if he was ever going to get the chance to tell her that he was her father, now that she'd been taken, and Ellie, too. He wasn't sure if either of them were still alive. While it was still early in their disappearances, it didn't take long to kill someone. He knew it only took seconds.

He cleared his throat. "And I felt obligated, to have some kind of impact in her life. To have some kind of presence. I'm... I'm her father."

Beckman nodded. "What about Chuck's sister?"

"Ellie."

"How long have you been an item?"

"It's been building for several months now. Since the mission in San Francisco."

"I should've at least been briefed, Colonel. About your relationships with both of them."

"Yes, ma'am."

"But, we'll worry about that after we find them."

He nodded grimly.

* * *

It had taken a miracle, but she'd finally been able to hit the button on the side of her watch twice, to activate the beacon. All she had to do was wait for Casey's promised cavalry and hope they arrived sooner rather than later.

Her wrists were red and raw. Her mouth still hurt from where she'd been punched. But, none of that would matter, not when she was home.

She jumped slightly when the door slammed open and her captor strolled in with a laptop. He opened it, holding it out in front of her.

On the screen she could see, very clearly, Alex, in a similar room, in a similar situation. Her eyes widened with a new fear as she looked up at the sandy-haired man.

"Watch," he said with a sneer.

Alex winced as the black-haired man entered, in a smart-looking suit. The man held a gun to her head, pressing it to her temple.

"We had you pegged all wrong, Dr. Bartowski," came his cold, calculating voice through the monitor's speakers. "Your brother isn't one for personal pain, but he's been trained. He's been uploaded with the Intersect 2.0. He can handle it, whatever we throw at him. You? You're just a doctor. I mistakenly thought you could be broken easily. Well played, Ellie. I was wrong and that doesn't happen very often. I will always be the first to admit it, when it's true. So, there's a new plan now," he said, cocking the gun.

Alex whimpered, closing her eyes tightly.

"Where's your father?" he demanded, looking square in the camera.

Ellie swallowed hard.

"Five... four..."

"No!"

"What was that, Dr. Bartowski? Three..."

"He can hear you," her captor told her.

"I said don't! I'll tell you, all right? Just leave her alone!"

Shaw uncocked the gun, sliding it into his holster. He reached out, gently touching Alex's face.

Ellie shuddered and watched as Alex did the same.

* * *

Ellie spent the next twenty minutes wondering what to reveal, what not to reveal. She'd had no idea they had Alex, too.

She wondered if that was the call that Casey had gotten while they were at the gun range that morning, because she remembered that he thought the call from Sarah had been odd.

She prayed, something she was doing a lot more of now that Casey was in her life, that the CIA and NSA teams would arrive soon to get her out of there, and Alex, too.

When the door slammed open again, the black-haired man, Shaw, entered. Her captor, sandy-haired Justin, was on his heels. "Stand up," Shaw said, wasting no time or pleasantries.

Ellie slowly got to her feet. She didn't like the way that Shaw was looking at her, particularly not when he crossed to her and spun her a quarter turn, so that he could see her hands.

Shaw looked back at Justin. "Knife. Now."

Justin pulled a pocket knife from his pants pocket, holding it out to Shaw.

Ellie glanced over at them both. "What... what are you doing?"

"That's a good question. What are you doing, Dr. Bartowski? Calling for help?" He sliced the ropes that had bound her wrists but before she had a chance to relish the freedom, he ripped her watch from her arm and showed it to Justin. "Move her," he said, disappointment and anger clear in his voice as he dropped the watch on the ground, crushing it under the heel of his shoe.

* * *

Casey was zipped his bag closed, glancing at the flat-panel television screen at the front of his living room that still had Ellie's picture and the sound of her beacon. It reminded him of her heartbeat. If he could still hear that, it had to mean she was okay. So long as it was going, he had faith that he would be able to find her and Alex in time.

His heart stopped when the beeping abruptly ended, when the error message popped up on the screen.

Beckman found her voice first. "No..."

Adrenaline took over and Casey shouldered his bag. He snatched the matching one from Beckman, who was finishing loading Sarah's, and snagged Chuck's from the table as well. He burst into the courtyard.

Sarah and Chuck, who were still sitting at the fountain, stood instantly.

"We've got to move," he said, tossing Sarah her bag first, then Chuck his. Both easily caught them. "Something's wrong."

Beckman stood in the open door at Casey's apartment, watching as they sprinted for his Crown Victoria.

* * *

Fully geared and armed to the teeth, Casey lead the assault on the warehouse. His heart felt heavier with each passing step. They advanced room by room, finding each empty in turn. There was clear evidence that someone had been there. Perhaps more than a few someones. The overturned chairs and scattered debris indicated that they left in a hurry.

Chuck knelt down in the center of one of the last rooms. "Guys..."

Casey glanced over at him as the geek's gloved hand lifted the shattered remains of Ellie's watch. He closed his eyes for a moment, letting out a pained grunt. Someone had known it wasn't _just_ a timepiece.

Sarah carefully eased a hand onto his forearm.

Casey had never been particularly good with anyone touching him, but he knew Sarah was only trying to help. He allowed her hand to linger for a moment, accepting the fact that his life was so different now that he didn't mind having an assist from one of his best friends. He glanced at her, his blue eyes guarded but appreciative. Stepping forward, he opened an evidence bag for Chuck to drop it into. Once he felt the weight of it hit the bottom of the bag, he quickly zipped it closed, sliding it into one of the pockets of his black cargo pants. He cleared his throat. "Rope, too," he said, opening another bag.

Chuck had purposefully avoided it, because it was stained red and the very last thing he wanted to think of was that his sister was hurt and bleeding somewhere. He'd been there before, lost, separated from the team because of what he knew. He hated to think of her being tortured because of him, because he'd _willingly_ uploaded the Intersect 2.0 into his head.

When he hesitated, Sarah stepped up, picking it up for him and putting it into Casey's evidence bag.

Casey's voice was low when he spoke again. "Let's see if we can't figure out which way they went. If we can't... we need to get back and regroup as soon as possible. Figure out who owns this building, if it was leased..."

* * *

Morgan rolled into the courtyard, looking first at Ellie's apartment. Her windows were still darkened. He glanced back at Casey's, but those lights were off, too. Heaving a heavy sigh, he neared his own empty apartment, juggling his keys to find the right one.

The spy life was leaving him behind. Chuck was always off with Sarah and Casey. And now Ellie was off doing something probably exciting and spy-like. And what was he supposed to do? Sit at home and play Call of Duty? Well, maybe Grand Theft Auto might cheer him up more, he decided. He could always make dinner... but what was the point, cooking for _one_? That was hardly worth the effort.

He tried to convince himself that he was helping, that he was doing important stuff for them, keeping their secrets. It was a heavy burden, one he didn't mind shouldering. He just wished for more, to be more important, to play a bigger role.

It had been a long time in coming. He'd been the world's greatest work-avoider for so long, but he knew, deep down, that he could handle it. He could handle the danger and the intrigue. He'd helped out from time to time, on very minor things. But, he was ready for the big leagues. _Put me in, Coach_, he thought dismally.

"Mr. Grimes?"

He jumped at the new voice in the courtyard, turning and offering his best fake karate-stance. "Who goes there!" He was surprised to see the petite woman with the blue uniform standing by the fountain. She must've come from the shadows, he guessed. Of course, there was only one person she could've been. "General Beckman, I presume?"

She inclined her head slightly.

He grinned broadly. "Wow. To hear Chuck talk about you, I figure you'd have to be, y'know... ten feet tall and _bulletproof_. I never would've expected, y'know... compact, travel-sized-"

"Mr. Grimes," she said, having heard all the cracks about height before. She wanted to point out he wasn't exactly statuesque either, but didn't. "I need some intel from you."

Morgan tried to keep his emotions in check but he wanted, desperately, to grin, to beam, to exude happiness and light and sunshine. His reason for being had finally arrived. His moment in the sun! "My brain is your brain. What do you need?"

* * *

Ellie paused in her work, tenderly probing the sores on her wrists. It made it difficult to write. The doctor in her really wanted some gauze, some antiseptic gel. She still had no idea where she was, but it seemed to be in a location even worse than her first one.

She glanced up at her captor, who sat with his arms crossed, watching her. While she fully expected him to be annoyed, he seemed more interested than anything.

"Intricate cypher," he said finally.

"As I said, my dad's pretty paranoid."

"Sounds mildly certifiable."

Ellie's hazel eyes darkened for a moment.

He leaned forward. "So, tell me something, Doc," he began.

She tightened her jaw. Doc was Casey's name for her and she didn't appreciate hearing it from someone else.

"Why the show, huh? Why not just give it up? You could've saved yourself, saved _Alex_ a whole lot of pain."

Ellie stiffened. "Alex is hurt?"

Justin shrugged, leaning back indifferently again.

She looked up at him slowly. "I want to see her."

"You don't have any bargaining chips left. You've already prepared the cypher. Doesn't take a _genius_ to encode a message using it."

Ellie dropped her pen on the table, easing her chair slightly back from the table. "Then, by all means."

Justin laughed, pulling the paper across the desk towards him, finishing the message in no time. He looked at her, smug. "See?"

"Which newspaper do you put it in?" she asked.

His smugness faded into anger again.

Ellie just smiled sweetly. "Let me see Alex."

* * *

Casey led his dejected team back into his apartment after coming up with no solid leads at the warehouse. He had enough equipment at his place to run fingerprints and trace evidence from the watch and rope respectively, to see if there was anything that might be beneficial.

When he unlocked the door and opened it, he dropped his keys on the table by the door, hitting the light.

Morgan slowly spun around in Casey's computer chair, looking very much like the cat who ate the canary.

Casey sneered. As if his day couldn't get any worse...

"Hey, buddy," Chuck said as he followed Casey and Sarah inside. "How'd you get here?"

"Had a nice long chat with a friend of yours. I'm sure you all know her. One General Diane Beckman," he said with a grin.

"Where is the General?" Casey asked, glancing around. She'd been there when they'd left, after all.

"She had to run, very busy woman, things to do. So, I've been deputized!"

Casey let out a long, low annoyed grunt.

"Hey, big guy, might as well get used to it," he said, standing and smoothing his vest down his chest. "Beckman said that while this is currently a temporary assignment, it might be long-term, if I play my cards right."

"What's going on, Morgan? What did Beckman say before she left?" asked Sarah.

"Well, she said she had to get ready for some big intelligence conference, where she's going to give a report on the Intersect project," Morgan said, glancing at Chuck.

Chuck casually looked over at Sarah, after he'd finally come clean about the Intersect 2.0's weaknesses.

Sarah remained calm, staying focused on Morgan.

"Anyway, she said that she's being watched, especially with Casey's, um... arrest? How can you be arrested and here at the same time? That part didn't make much sense."

"Keep talking, _moron_," Casey said, at his wit's end.

Morgan stood a little straighter. "She said she's trying to get access to talk to Kathleen McHugh, but that they've got her in protective custody pretty deep. There is no getting even _remotely_ close to her, not through normal channels. But, she wants you guys to look at the background information she was able to get on this guy," he said, pulling a file from within his messenger bag. "Justin Sullivan."

"The agent on point," Chuck said, accepting the file Morgan held out. He quickly opened it, skimming the contents. As he expected, the Intersect kicked in nearly instantly.

"Whoa, buddy," Morgan said, watching as Chuck's eyes unfocused, as he started to tip backwards.

Casey easily reached out, steadying the lanky geek. He looked squarely at Sarah, who rushed into Casey's kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge.

Morgan wheeled the computer chair over, and Casey deposited the Intersect into it, removing the file from his hands.

Sarah offered Chuck the bottle of water, and he accepted it graciously if a little sheepishly. "What'd you see?" she asked.

"The mole... the one I was supposed to kill, who was supposed to be my red test..."

"What about him?" Casey asked.

"He used to be partners with Sullivan."

Morgan glanced between all three of the agents, as they all seemingly had a shared, silent revelation. "Is this good news or bad? I don't understand..."

* * *

Alex braced for whatever was coming next when the door to her room was slammed open. The very last thing she expected was to be face to face with _her_. "You."

"Alex, are you okay?" Ellie asked. She was immediately in doctor mode, trying to examine her, to make sure she was all right.

"I'm fine, no thanks to _you_ or _my father_," she spat contemptuously, sliding away from her.

"He wanted to tell you. He was _going_ to tell you," Ellie said.

"Of course he was," she said. Her venomous anger faded away to confusion. She was torn, between remembering the kind patron and realizing that her _father_ had something to do with her being taken.

"I know this is all confusing and strange and downright _weird_, but believe me when I tell you, Alex, there's nothing in this world that will stop your father from coming to get you."

"Who is he? No, _what_ is he? And what are you?"

Ellie hated that she was the one to let her in on the big secret. "He's a Marine Colonel serving in the NSA," she whispered quietly.

Alex laughed at the absurdity of it all. "Sure he is."

"They took his identity from him. They _killed_ Alex Coburn so he could live on as John Casey, so he could protect his country and _you_."

"Why didn't he come find me before?"

"He didn't know about you, not until a few months ago."

"But, you just said-"

"He chose service and sacrifice. If he'd known about you before he made that choice, he might've chosen differently, but he _didn't_ know. While the what-if game is tempting, you can't play it. Believe me, it only serves to send you into a downward spiral from which you'll never emerge. But, the point is, he knows who you are now, and he loves you and he's scared for you... and he'll come find you. He'll come find the both of us."

"How can I trust you?" Alex asked. "How can I trust anything you say?"

"You'll just have to take it on faith," Ellie said with a shrug.

The door burst open again and Justin entered, physically removing Ellie from the room.

Alex watched as Ellie struggled, fighting to stay in the room, to keep talking to her. "E... Ellie?" she ventured carefully.

"Stay strong, Alex," she called as she was shoved out into the hall.

Even with the door slammed closed again, Alex could hear the confrontation continue in the hall.

"You've seen her now so tell me what I need to know!"

There was a long moment of silence, and Alex strained to hear. She gasped when she heard the sickening smack of flesh on flesh. A punch, she guessed.

The answer Ellie finally gave was weak, and Alex couldn't hear it clearly, but she knew it was Ellie who spoke.

Justin's voice echoed through the hall. "We don't need her anymore," he said to someone.

Panic gripped Alex's heart. She found her own voice surprising as she screamed out: "_No_!"

* * *

Stay tuned...

Lines from the next installment:

Stephen paced for a moment in front of them, feeling the intense looks from the others in the cabin. "It's... It's a new technology. It's not an Intersect, not an update of the 2.0, it's... Long-term use of the Intersect, it's always been... questionable tech."

"Questionable?" Chuck repeated.

Sarah reached out, taking his hand in hers, hoping to quiet him. She wasn't sure, if Stephen stopped, that he'd ever start again.

"The long-term side effects," he said, "they're... The effects of an Intersect, of having _that much_ information in your head, to access it at a moment's notice, either by an external trigger or an _internal_ trigger, it's... It can short out the brain."

"When were you going to tell me about this, Dad?"

"I didn't know you'd downloaded the 2.0. It was supposed to be for Bryce Larkin."

Casey issued a warning grunt. They needed to remain _on topic._


	5. Chapter 4

For notes and disclaimer, please see part one.

Here's a couple things you might need to know or maybe you just forgot: Shaw and Justin discuss Casey's release as well as Justin's inability to break Ellie, which culminates in Shaw threatening Alex's life in front of Ellie and Ellie relenting. Chuck finally tells Sarah that the Intersect is having issues, that Dr. Dreyfuss didn't tell him everything was all right. Beckman tells Casey she believes in his innocence. When Shaw comes to get the information from Ellie directly, he realizes she's placed a covert call for help and destroys her watch. Team Bartwoski searches the last known GPS location of the watch, and find it broken along with a discarded rope. Back at the apartment, the team meets a new member. Morgan has intel on Justin from Beckman. Ellie manages to con a meeting with Alex out of Justin.

* * *

Sarah accessed the files on Chuck's red test from Casey's computer. Splitting up the documentation among the three spies, it was easy to see exactly who was behind it.

Daniel Shaw.

"This can't be a coincidence, can it?" Chuck asked.

Sarah could only shrug.

"What are we talkin' about, guys?" asked Morgan. He was dying to be helpful, to be beneficial, to prove his worth.

Casey dropped the printed out pages onto his desk and sat back in his recliner. "Tell us everything about the dreams, Chuck. Everything about your Shaw dreams."

Chuck took a slow breath. "Well, he's not dead in them. He's... around every corner, he's hiding in the shadows. He's still alive. He's torturing me in my sleep. He's after me, after us. He's in the midst of every mission. It doesn't matter where we are or what we're doing or who we're going after, he's there. Somewhere."

Casey slowly sat up again.

"What?" Chuck asked.

He got to his feet. "Somebody knew that kidnapping Alex would be devastating. Somebody knew that framing me for it would split the team, that Beckman would have to kowtow to the brass and have me arrested, and break us up."

"Somebody had to know how we operate," Sarah said.

Casey nodded. "Somebody who knew we'd be so distracted, we'd leave Ellie vulnerable. Somebody who knew about Alex, who knew about Ellie, about our weaknesses, about _my_ weaknesses."

"What are we getting at here?" Morgan asked.

"Shaw's not dead," Chuck said. "Is he?"

"I don't think so, _killer_," Casey said with a sigh.

* * *

Stephen J. Bartowski sat at his dining room table, the newspaper spread out in front of him, turned to the classified section. The first message seemed completely innocuous. Downright light and fluffy even.

_Dad, miss you. Any chance you might come to L.A. soon? Ellie._

The second message made him sigh. It weighed heavy on his heart.

_Ellie's in trouble. I downloaded the 2.0. Please help. Charles._

What had Chuck been thinking? Downloading the updated Intersect, the more _dangerous_ Intersect?

That meant...

Stephen sobered nearly instantly.

That meant Chuck was probably experiencing the same side effects he'd been suffering from. Or, if he hadn't started having them yet, he would soon.

He stood, his brain running in three different directions at the same time. He needed to get to L.A., to help Chuck. He needed to gather his equipment, anything light enough to travel, because Chuck was going to need a new watch.

And Ellie. Ellie had probably sent that message under duress. What kind of trouble could she have gotten herself into? And why would she send a message like that unless...

Unless they were after him, after the new governor technology.

He stopped in mid pack, closing his eyes tightly. Even running away, it hadn't helped. Even leaving his children as far away as he dared, they were still exposed to the grave dangers that came with his science, his advancements, his technology.

Why had he ever invented the damn thing in the first place?

* * *

As much as he tried, he couldn't focus on work. How was he supposed to? It had been over twenty-four hours since Alex went missing, over twenty-four hours since Ellie'd been gone. Another six or seven hours, and it would be a full day since Ellie's watch alerted them that there was an issue and then had gone silent.

He let his head hit the Nerd Herd desk.

The solid smack to the noggin didn't do much for his stress levels or the issues he was having with the Intersect. He'd had another dream in the night, one he'd woken up screaming from. Shaw was taunting him in his sleep, transferring the bullet holes that used to be on his chest onto his sister's, onto Alex's.

While he knew Casey was an impressive specimen, he knew that the big guy had to have a breaking point. And destroying what was turning out to be his promising future would be the easiest way to do so.

Breaking Casey would succeed in breaking the team. While he figured he and Sarah were pretty inseparable, he wasn't entirely sure how he'd deal with never seeing his sister again. The thought made him sick to his stomach.

Feeling eyes on him, he glanced up to see Morgan over by the microwave oven display, looking back at him in concern. He managed a weak wave.

Morgan dipped his head in return.

Chuck rested his head in his hand, his elbow propped up on the desk. He stared forward, at the front door of the store, sitting up straighter when he saw his father enter. He blinked, making sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. "Dad?" he asked in a whisper.

The collar of Stephen's coat was turned up, his baseball cap pulled low over his eyes. But, that was definitely the way his father walked, hunched over, hesitant but speedy.

"Oh, thank God," he said, quickly leaving the Nerd Herd desk. "Dad?"

"Son," Stephen said, wrapping Chuck up in a fierce hug.

"You got my message?"

"And your sister's."

Chuck was puzzled as Stephen pulled back. "Ellie's?"

"You didn't... You didn't see today's paper?"

"I... no..."

"Can you leave?"

Chuck looked at Morgan, who was glancing back towards Big Mike's office. Seeing that the big man was distracted, Morgan shooed them both out. "Yeah, let's go," Chuck said, guiding his dad back into the L.A. sunshine.

* * *

The noise level was reaching insanely high decibels. He was hanging onto his calm exterior by a thread.

"I didn't have a choice, Dad! It was either me or let the Ring get it!"

"You had a choice, Charles. You always had a choice. You should've walked away."

"Right. Run away, just like you did. 'Cause that's somehow _safer._"

Casey wanted to tell them that the only reason they were arguing like that was because they were so much _alike_. But, he was afraid that saying that would only make the volume go up and not down and his head hurt enough already.

"This doesn't change the fact," Sarah said, politely but firmly breaking into the conversation, "that Ellie's still missing, that she contacted you for reasons the rest of us don't understand."

Neither Bartowski seemed to hear her interlude.

"I did everything I could for you and your sister."

"Yeah. Leaving us alone as teenagers? To fend for ourselves? That's downright _fatherly_ of you."

Casey finally let out an ear-splitting whistle.

All action in the room ceased and all eyes turned to him.

"Much better," he said, strolling into the middle of them. "We have the following problems. One, my daughter is missing. Two," he said, looking at Stephen, "your daughter, the woman I love, is missing."

Stephen's eyebrows drifted up his forehead.

"And three, Chuck's _head_ is on the fritz."

Chuck closed his eyes as the attention was shifted back to him.

"This is how we're going to go about this," Casey continued. "One. There will be _no_ arguments of any kind until all parties are successfully located and Chuck can flash without falling down. Two. Mr. Bartowski, your job is to solve the third problem and the third problem only. We need the team at full strength in order to be able to accomplish the first two tasks. And we can't do that until Chuck's back to... well, _relative_ normal. Is that understood?" he asked, glancing at each of them in turn. With no qualms, no comments, he nodded. "Good. Get it _done_."

Casey turned on his heel, heading out of the rented cabin and into the daylight. He inhaled slowly, deeply. It wasn't helping. The longer they had no leads whatsoever, the longer they had to wait on a break, the less hope he had of finding either his daughter of his love alive.

While they'd initially been at Casey's apartment when Chuck showed up with Stephen, they'd unanimously decided, for their safety, that they needed to be as far away from prying eyes as possible. With Justin Sullivan somehow connected to Shaw and Chuck's red test, they needed to go somewhere where the video surveillance wasn't backed up on CIA servers. While Beckman could offer some protection, she couldn't give much.

He'd cracked his personal safe and coughed up the cash for their new digs, a cabin far enough away from the established intelligence offices without being in the middle of nowhere, somewhere that might not raise any red flags, but that would have a power supply more than adequate for Stephen's needs. He and Sarah had gone and gotten other necessities, food and the like, and had come home to find that argument.

His ears still rang from the bickering as he moved further away from the cabin, pulling a cigar out of his cargo pants pocket. Normally, he saved a good Cuban for a successful mission, or one of his Costa Gravan Double Coronas for a treat after a long day. He really just wanted to try to calm down, and he hoped a little dose of tobacco might help him do just that.

He had done little more than light the thing when he heard footsteps behind him.

* * *

Sarah watched as Stephen set to work, as Chuck relented, setting aside his differences with his father to try to help out.

Hoping Casey's "pep" talk had done enough to keep them from yelling at each other for the moment, she quietly slipped out, to follow after her partner.

She'd convinced him, when they'd gone for a supply run, to try to contact his mother, see if she had any contacts in the CIA, anyone who might be willing to trust an old friend, to help out. The phone call had been brief, and she'd only been privy to Casey's side of the call, but it had sounded promising.

She spotted him not far, a little ways from the cabin, away from the cars. She could see the storm clouds in his eyes, the way he was just looking at the cigar. It wasn't clenched between his teeth, he wasn't blowing smoke. He was just looking at the smoldering end, rolling the cigar back and forth between his fingers.

"Casey?"

He cleared his throat. "How's it going with the Bartowskis?"

"You certainly seem to have made an impression on your future father-in-law."

Casey's expression darkened even further, which Sarah hadn't thought possible.

"We'll find them," Sarah assured him.

"We've got two freaking-out Bartowskis and Morgan Grimes on our team. You're the only one I trust right now, the only one with a level head."

"We'll find them _both_," she said gently.

"Shaw knows us, knows that we'd focus on Alex. He knew we'd leave Ellie susceptible to..." He swallowed hard.

"Casey."

He didn't respond right away.

She could tell he was lost down that what-if road, the road that was a dangerous place to be. "John."

He glanced up at the use of his first name.

"There's one thing he didn't know."

"What's that?"

"That attacking us personally doesn't make us weaker. It makes us stronger. He used Chuck's red test against me. He's using Alex against you, Ellie against both you and Chuck."

"The fact that Stephen got two messages... What's he got that Shaw wants?"

Sarah shrugged slightly. "He created the Intersect."

"Ted Roark tried the same thing. It didn't work."

"Casey, do you... Do you remember when Ellie was taken hostage at the hospital?"

He looked over at her. Of _course_ he did.

"Rogue Fulcrum agents were after a kind of mini-Intersect. Through interrogation, the agents admitted they wanted into the Ring. What if there's a different kind of Intersect? What if Stephen's working on something else, some Intersect-like device?"

Casey dropped the barely-touched cigar, stomping on the burning end as he trudged back into the cabin. "Bartowski," he said, his voice booming.

Both turned to look at him, but the Marine's gaze was focused solely on Stephen.

"What have you been working on?"

Stephen nervously cleared his throat, glancing at Chuck.

* * *

Ellie closed her eyes, leaning her pounding head against her knees. She reminded herself, somewhat harshly, that she'd chosen the dangerous path, the path with Casey and Chuck. She'd been given the option. Sarah'd given her an out, given her an opportunity to train, to still be who she was-a doctor-but to be a spook doctor, to go somewhere exotic, to work on agents who needed her help.

She'd asked Sarah about the possibilities of staying attached to their team. Sarah'd said it was up to Beckman. And seeing as how they didn't have a doctor attached to the team at the moment, Sarah answered truthfully, that she wasn't sure it would be entirely plausible. She'd offered to check, but Ellie had declined. She'd declined the whole thing.

Westside needed her. L.A. needed her. Chuck and Casey needed her close. And she needed them more.

She'd been Chuck's mother in all reality. She'd known, at some point, that she'd have to let him go. It was the reality, the _circle of life_, mothers letting go of their young. But, she'd held on with a death-grip. She still didn't want to let go of him even though he'd long ago let go of her. When he'd started lying to her, when he started working for the CIA, that had been the moment she'd lost him.

He'd been kind enough to give her the _illusion_ of his still needing her. He'd given her the illusion that she was still important, and she'd clung to it, even when she'd known, deep down, that something was wrong, that something was different. That he wasn't the same Chuck she'd remembered.

Ever since she'd discovered the truth, their relationship changed, it became more equal for the first time in a long time. She was no longer his mother, she was finally his sister. It had only taken twenty years of being his mother to finally become what she'd been all along, and she had really enjoyed their new relationship, their new closeness.

And then there was Casey. Casey, who protected her, who respected her, who treated her well, who _loved_ her. Casey who worried about her. Casey who wanted her input, her wisdom, who would often seek out her advice. Casey, who was strength personified. He was the epitome of a rock, of a solid foundation. Her world had always been so topsy-turvy and having that unwavering strength from him, it was so very different. And she'd needed that.

And did she ever need him now. She needed Casey to find them.

The worry seeped back into her emotions. She'd sent a message to her father, a blithely innocent message, one that could easily send him into the cell between hers and Alex's, or worse. Had she made too many missteps? Had she ruined the chances of getting herself rescued, of getting Alex rescued?

She lifted her hands, bound this time with handcuffs, covering her eyes.

God, what had she done?

* * *

Stephen paced for a moment in front of them, feeling the intense looks from the others in the cabin. "It's... It's a new technology. It's not an Intersect, not an update of the 2.0, it's... Long-term use of the Intersect, it's always been... questionable tech."

"Questionable?" Chuck repeated.

Sarah reached out, taking his hand in hers, hoping to quiet him. She wasn't sure, if Stephen stopped, that he'd ever start again.

"The long-term side effects," he said, "they're... The effects of an Intersect, of having _that much_ information in your head, to access it at a moment's notice, either by an external trigger or an _internal_ trigger, it's... It can short out the brain."

"When were you going to tell me about this, Dad?"

"I didn't know you'd downloaded the 2.0. It was supposed to be for Bryce Larkin."

Casey issued a warning grunt. They needed to remain _on topic._

The room quietened for a moment.

"The... the only reason I can figure anyone would want me," Stephen said, "is if they have an Intersect. Only then would they need a governor."

"The Intersect 2.0 was always intended for a spy in complete control of their emotions," Sarah said. "Someone like Bryce Larkin. Someone..." A cold fear washed over her. "Someone like Shaw."

"But, I shot him. How could he have lived if I _shot_ him?" asked Chuck.

"You killed someone?" Stephen asked, aghast.

Casey grunted again. "I shot Larkin, too, before I even met you. See how well that turned out?"

Sarah eased back in her chair, glancing at the two circled messages in the classified section of the paper in front of her. "Guys... Ellie's going to need a response."

"What?" Casey asked, glancing at her.

Sarah snagged the paper, holding it up. "Ellie needs a response, something we can say, something only she would know. Something they'd need to ask her about. Whoever they are."

All three men looked at each other.

* * *

Justin looked at the decoded message. It made no sense at all. Annoyed, he re-did the encryption code, decrypting the classified ad again. Still the same gibberish.

He could only imagine the frustration from Shaw if he took the message to him.

He wadded up the scratch paper he'd been working from and tossed it at a nearby garbage can, missing it by several inches. He tried a third time. Third time had to have been the charm. Except, it wasn't. He was still getting some strange message about Tron and pancakes that he didn't even begin to understand.

Except, it still had the same results. Taking the newspaper and his attempt at decoding the message, he stormed down to the room where Ellie was being held.

She looked up, startled, as he burst in.

"What the hell is this supposed to mean?" he asked, tossing it at her.

She grabbed the decoded part of the message and a small smile came to her face.

"Well?"

She looked up at him. "Looks like I still have some leverage after all, don't I?"

* * *

Alex wasn't sure if she should be pleased that it wasn't the black-haired man who seemed both cruel and kind all at once. Justin entered, roughly grabbing her hands, freeing her.

"Wh... I..."

"Shut up," he hissed. "I'm letting you go."

"What?"

"You're free. You're done," he told her coldly.

She swallowed hard, rubbing at her wrists. "I've... I've seen movies, y'know, where the person is freed only to be killed, because I've seen your faces and know... I could work with a sketch artist or something."

"This isn't like that. Move."

She shook her head defiantly. "Not until I know why."

"Because your daddy's girlfriend _says_ so," he sneered. "Now leave! Before I change my mind!"

* * *

Ellie breathed a huge sigh of relief as she watched Alex on the laptop screen, as Justin let her go. The screen shifted, a motion-sensor camera following Alex as she sprinted out of the building. Ellie realized she knew where Alex was being held, at a subway station not far from the hospital, not far from the Echo Park apartment complex.

"Good girl," she murmured, watching as Alex ran as fast as she could, not once looking back.

She hoped, as the screen finally switched back to Justin in the empty cell, that it meant she'd done the right thing, that Alex would be okay.

Inhaling deeply, she looked at the paper in front of her and worked, awkwardly with her hands still bound, to prepare an encoded message to send back to her father.

* * *

Casey grumbled as Chuck's cell phone rang. The Mexican Hat Dance had always driven him insane and it wasn't helping matters now.

"It's Morgan," Chuck announced.

"Charles, this was supposed to be a safe-house, off the grid," Stephen said.

Chuck narrowed his eyes at his father, answering anyway. "Morgan?"

"Chuck! Chuck, thank goodness. Um... I think you and Casey are going to want to get over here."

"Where's here?"

"The Buy More, dude. I've got someone here who needs to see her father."

"Ellie?"

"Uh... no," he said, clearly upset he'd gotten his friend hopeful. "Alex."

Chuck looked over at Casey, who was eagerly awaiting some kind of confirmation of good news. "We'll be right there, buddy. Keep her safe, keep her out of the Castle, keep her away from the apartment, got it?"

"Where should we go?"

"Just... stay put, okay?"

"Yeah, Chuck, you bet."

Chuck hung up the phone. "Alex is at the Buy More."

Casey's eyes grew large. "What?"

"Alex. Buy More. Let's go!"

* * *

Stay tuned...

Lines from the next installment:

Casey's laser-like blue gaze cut through the store, landing on his daughter sitting behind the Nerd Herd desk with Morgan hovering over her worriedly. "Alex," he whispered. He rushed towards her, Sarah not far behind. "Alex?"

She looked up, into the face of her father. It was like she was seeing him for the first time and for the hundredth time, all in one look. She swallowed hard. "Dad."

He offered a slight, jerky nod, noting well that it looked like she'd been crying. Her face looked like it had been freshly washed, but her clothes were a little dingy. Her hair, stringy from being away from a shower for a few days, was pulled back. Her wrists clearly had rope burns. His heart broke seeing her like that.


	6. Chapter 5

For notes and disclaimer, please see part one.

Here's a couple things you might need to know or maybe you just forgot: Team Bartowski starts to put together the fact that Shaw might be alive and behind everything. Stephen Bartowski gets the messages sent by his children and comes to L.A. Chuck and his dad butt heads over the Intersect 2.0 but they have to remain on target. They have to fix Chuck so that they can save Alex and Ellie. Casey winds up even calling on his mother to see if she has any old contacts in the CIA who can help sort out what's going on. Sarah decides they need to encode another message back to Ellie, something only she could understand. Ellie, using that leverage, gets Alex released. Morgan calls from the Buy More, that Alex is there.

* * *

Casey didn't wait for Chuck to catch up. In fact, he barely slowed down when Sarah opened the passenger door of his rental car. He'd left his beloved Vic back in Burbank. It had too much equipment that could be traced, and the last thing they needed was their own government looking over their shoulder as they worked on the governor tech as well as trying to figure out what the CIA was doing involved in this mess.

The SUV roared down the back roads.

Sarah was never worried or anxious, riding with Casey. Under normal mission circumstances, he was easily one of the best defensive drivers she'd ever seen. Given the added stress he was under currently, he was driving even _better_, which she hadn't thought at all possible given the incredible speeds they were traveling to get to the Buy More.

He parked the car illegally in the loading zone but he really didn't care. If it got towed, he'd easily go rent another one after a stop by his locker for a little extra spending money.

Before Sarah could even unbuckle her seat belt, Casey was out of the car and into the store.

Casey's laser-like blue gaze cut through the store, landing on his daughter sitting behind the Nerd Herd desk with Morgan hovering over her worriedly. "Alex," he whispered. He rushed towards her, Sarah not far behind. "Alex?"

She looked up, into the face of her father. It was like she was seeing him for the first time and for the hundredth time, all in one look. She swallowed hard. "Dad."

He offered a slight, jerky nod, noting well that it looked like she'd been crying. Her face looked like it had been freshly washed, but her clothes were a little dingy. Her hair, stringy from being away from a shower for a few days, was pulled back. Her wrists clearly had rope burns. His heart broke seeing her like that.

She set the water bottle down she'd been holding and sprang up from the chair. She ran around the desk, practically tackling him in a hug. Her arms wrapped around him so tightly.

Casey swallowed hard. Of all the reactions he'd imagined on the drive over, what he was currently experiencing hadn't been anywhere in his imagination. "I..." He wasn't entirely sure what to do. He glanced up, spotting Morgan, who was grinning and pantomiming hugging her back.

Casey slowly let his arms rest around her. Feeling her hold onto him even tighter, he closed his eyes, allowing a brief moment of relief to wash over him.

* * *

Beckman wasn't exactly thrilled with the way her day was turning out. The closed-door hearing was a particularly uncomfortable experience with thorough grilling regarding the expense and sometimes questionable results given by the Human Intersect Project. It was definitely the downside to the job she otherwise loved. In the middle of a short break, her cell phone vibrated. Casually checking the message, she recognized Chuck's cell phone number.

_Alex McHugh found safe. Still determining what happened. CB_

She smiled a little, nodding.

When the meeting reconvened, a surprise witness entered. Beckman, after years within the upper brass, within the Washington beltway, had perfected her poker face, but even it cracked slightly when she saw a dead man walk into the room.

Daniel Shaw nodded at her, offering her a cocky grin.

"Assembled panel," Shaw said, bowing slightly at the high-ranking military officers at the front of the room. He set his briefcase on the podium, withdrawing a thick packet of information. "I have in my hands proof of how poorly the Human Intersect Project has been managed, the fractions within the supposed core team of Agent Sarah Walker, Colonel John Casey, and Chuck Bartowski," he said.

It grated on Beckman, that Shaw didn't even give Chuck the courtesy of using his proper title.

"The team is made up of an NSA has-been who is currently being held for kidnapping his own daughter, a questionable CIA agent whose father is a known felon and con artist, and someone who, clearly, was never cut out for field work. A professed _geek_, who is unable, or unwilling, to handle the stresses of the job."

"I'm sorry, if I may?" Beckman said, leaning into her microphone.

Shaw cleared his throat.

"General, we've heard your testimony," said one of the Admirals with a disinterested sigh.

"I'm well aware, but I have recently come into some information that I believe this esteemed panel needs to hear," Beckman said.

The chairman of the panel deferred to Shaw, who merely shrugged. "Very well. A _brief_ interlude."

"I have just been informed that Alexandra McHugh, the daughter of Colonel Casey, has been located." She watched as Shaw's jaw tightened, but only for a fraction of a second. "She was not taken by any member of my Human Intersect Project team."

"With all due respect, General, how can we be certain that they weren't aware of her location _because _of their involvement with the kidnapping plot? Ms. McHugh indicates that, perhaps, there was more than one person who took her daughter. Perhaps your entire, so-called _crack-shot_ team took them?" Shaw said, resting easily against the podium.

"Perhaps the panel would allow me time to meet with my team, to get a full report. I'm sure they would be more than happy to update you directly," Beckman said.

The panel seemed to consider that for a moment. "Very well. Get that report together, General. I expect to see it before the end of business." He banged the gavel on the desk.

Beckman stood, moving towards Shaw, who was putting his documents back into his briefcase. "Special Agent Shaw," she said with barely restrained anger.

He easily towered over her.

"I'm not sure what you're up to, but whatever it is... Rest assured. I will find out."

Shaw smiled politely. "So nice to see you again, too, Diane."

* * *

Sarah drove back to the cabin, allowing Casey and Alex to sit in the back of the SUV and try to have a relatively private conversation. Alex had a lot of questions and Casey did his best to answer them.

When she finally put the car into park, Casey took one last look at his daughter. "We'll talk more later, I promise, but we've got to figure out what else is going on," he said as they all three climbed out.

"With Ellie?" she asked.

Casey nodded.

"Ellie... it's because of her that they let me go."

Casey knit his brow together, confused. "What?"

"Before I was released, the guy said it was Ellie's doing, why they let me go," she said, glancing back and forth between Casey and Sarah.

"We need you to take a look at some photographs, all right?" Sarah said, guiding the teen into the house.

"Yeah, sure."

"It must've been the message," Casey said, nodding at Sarah as they entered.

"What was the message?" Chuck asked, glancing up.

"I think Walker's idea helped lead to Alex's being released," Casey said.

Chuck smiled at Alex gently. "Do you know where you were being held?"

Alex shook her head slowly. "Not exactly. I mean, I know it was at a subway station, like a maintenance station? But, as soon as I got out of there, I just... I just kept running," she said, glancing at Casey. "And then I figured I needed to find you, and I remembered you said you worked at a Buy More."

"Was Ellie being held there, too?" Chuck asked.

Alex shrugged. "I only saw her once. I really don't know."

Casey looked down as his phone began to vibrate.

"Again. I thought this place was supposed to be _off_ grid," Stephen chided.

Casey narrowed his eyes, grunting at him. "Alex, work with Walker, see about backtracking your movements, see if you can pinpoint the station, or at least a general area where we can start working from." He answered the phone, taking several steps away from the rest of the group. "Mom?"

"Johnny, I've been trying to look into this... this Shaw guy."

"Yeah?"

"I don't think you fully understand who you're dealing with."

He sighed, stepping back outside. He still kept his voice low, however. "We worked _with_ him for a while, he was assigned to our project. I'm fully aware of what kind of a scumbag he is. He played with Walker's mind, he toyed with her emotions."

"He's Ring."

"What do you know about the Ring?"

"Considering I've just had a crash course from my former partner? Quite a bit."

"Listen, they let Alex go."

"My granddaughter..."

"Yes."

"Johnny," she sighed.

"I didn't know, Mom."

"You could've told me when you found out."

"I really don't have time for this kind of a conversation, Mom. Ellie's still out there, somewhere, in Shaw's custody."

"You're going to need all the help you can get."

"I'm going to need a couple more miracles. You got any of those stockpiled somewhere?"

"I wish," she said softly.

* * *

Shaw glanced around the empty cell. He was quite certain that the daughter of John Casey, while having admirable skills, wouldn't have been able to get out of the room without outside assistance, without someone _letting_ her go. His cold, dark gaze landed on Justin standing in the shadows of the corridor.

"You want to tell me what happened here?"

"I made a deal."

"You aren't entitled to make any kinds of deals where you lose _my_ leverage. Is that understood?"

"Sir, it was the only way to get Ellie to cooperate."

"Ellie cooperated fully before by just putting a gun to the girl's head. You don't think that might've worked a second time?"

"She was adamant."

"I'm pretty adamant, too, Sullivan. This," he said, gesturing around the room, "was bush-league on your part. I expected _more_ from you. You let her get under your skin. You were supposed to have studied the woman, you were supposed to have figured out a way to get her to trust you. Do you remember that part of the plan? The initial plan?"

"I'm well aware of that plan. But the woman I studied wasn't the one who wound up dating a freakin' NSA agent. She's different than the information_ you_ provided me with."

"She's..." Shaw could feel his blood pressure rising as well as the timbre of his voice. He took a step back and centered himself. He didn't want to get too agitated, not without having the governor. The very last thing he needed was to somehow flood the Intersect in his brain and be unable to finish carrying out his plan. "She's just a means to an end. And so was Casey's daughter."

"Shaw-"

"Your services will no longer be needed _here_. Find out what happened to Alex."

Justin tried again to protest, but thought the better of it when faced with Shaw's deadly gaze. He nodded, stalking off.

Shaw took a slow, calming breath. "Bush-league," he muttered.

* * *

Chuck looked at the watch his father held out to him. "What is this?"

"This is your governor. It'll help regulate the Intersect, it'll prevent the data from corrupting, from attempting a hard reboot."

"A hard reboot?" he asked.

"I haven't... I'm not sure what it would do to a person. The governor is our best bet."

Chuck looked at the watch on his left wrist, the one he wore for the CIA, the one that had his tracking information, the one that had his microphone. Deciding it was best to keep both until he could figure out if he could consolidate down, he placed the governor on his right wrist, fastening it securely.

The change was instantaneous. He hadn't realized fully how much extra weight the Intersect caused him to carry, not until it was suddenly _lessened_.

"Better?" Stephen asked.

"Much," he said with a nod. "Wow, Dad, that's... I..."

"If being a spy is what you want... if living this... this life is what you want..." Stephen hesitated. "All I ever wanted for you and your sister was to be happy. To make your own choices, to be productive, healthy adults... While this job doesn't necessarily offer the protection I would like for it to have... if that's what you want..."

"It is, Dad," Chuck said with a nod.

Sarah crossed towards them hesitantly. "How's it going over here?"

"Good," Chuck said. "Better."

She smiled softly. "Listen, Casey just got a call from Beckman. She wants to see him and me, probably something about this whole 'custody' issue. Afterward, we'll all load up and go after Ellie together, all right? We'll have her home by nightfall."

Chuck nodded slowly. "Sure. Thanks, Sarah."

"Keep an eye on Alex for us?" she said, looking at the girl who was dozing on the couch in the living room.

"No problem," Chuck said.

Stephen didn't say anything, and he didn't react, though he wanted to. He'd seen, very clearly, Chuck's fingers crossed behind his back when he spoke to Sarah. While they were his son's choices, he still didn't have to approve of them necessarily, did he?

* * *

Sarah led the way into the office building. It was where, she knew, Beckman had been undergoing the grueling questioning on the Human Intersect Project. It was a CIA base, a nice one.

Casey was only a little on-edge. He wasn't sure he liked having this meeting inside a building housing an agency that wasn't technically his. Particularly not when the CIA had wanted his head on a platter, or at least his body in a cell two mornings ago.

"I don't like this," Casey muttered.

Sarah spoke, barely moving her lips. "At ease, Casey."

"Where's Beckman?"

"She's supposed to meet us, third floor," she said, nodding to the woman at the entry desk and passing through to the elevator. Casey followed closely behind.

They didn't have to wait long on an elevator car, and the ride up two flights took no time at all.

"Room 312," Sarah said, recalling the information from the message from their superior.

Except, as she was looking for the room numbers, Casey tried to reach out, to stop her. "Walker, wait."

She almost ran head-first into Justin Sullivan. She smiled politely. "I'm so sorry. I really should watch where I'm going." Her blue eyes flitted to the woman standing with him, the one who had gasped sharply, frightened.

"Ms. McHugh, is this the man that kidnapped your daughter?" Justin asked, nodding to Casey.

Casey tried to take several steps back, to head back to the elevator or the stairwell he knew had to be close to it. He felt the familiar sensation of a gun barrel in his ribs and closed his eyes for a moment.

"Ma'am, your daughter is fine. She was released earlier today by her captors. Her captor who is _not_ this man," Sarah said, referring to Casey.

"How could you, Alex?" Kathleen asked, her eyes brimming with tears.

Casey shook his head. "This isn't what you think. No matter what _he_ has led you to believe... it's not true."

"General Beckman can clear all of this up. Where is she?" Sarah asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry, another co-conspirator? Don't worry about her," Justin said. "Ms. McHugh, if you'll just wait in my office..."

"Kathleen!" Casey yelled.

She'd started taking a few steps away but stopped, shuddering when he heard him call to her.

"If I ever meant anything to you... Believe me when I tell you I did _not_ do this. I would not hurt our daughter."

"You're a dead man, Alex. Or John. Or... _whoever_. How can I take your word for anything?"

"She's got you there, Johnny-boy. Talk about Father of the Year material." Justin let out a low whistle.

"Please," Casey tried.

"Where's my daughter?" she asked.

Casey could hear, clearly, the difference in how they saw Alex. And he knew the answer he was about to give wouldn't make him _sound_ any less guilty. "She's safe."

"Give me back my daughter, you son of a bitch!"

Sarah glanced at Casey, seeing his jaw tighten.

Casey watched as Kathleen disappeared down the hall with angry footsteps as well as the nearly instantaneous change in Justin's face from concerned agent to smug bastard.

"Take 'em away," he said, nodding to the agents that were surrounding them.

* * *

Stephen wasn't entirely sure this was Chuck's most brilliant moment ever. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"It's Ellie, Dad. Do you really suggest we leave her with crazy kidnapping people?"

"It's just that you told Sarah that we were going to stay there..."

"Sarah and Casey will be fine. Casey will be even better when we get Ellie out of here and back to the cabin. Trust me."

"When did... when did all that happen? I mean, I thought she and Devon were..."

"It's a long story."

"Weren't they happy?"

"They were lying to each other. That doesn't exactly, y'know, spell marital bliss."

"This is why I wished you would've left the spy world alone."

Chuck closed his eyes tightly. "Don't start this again, Dad, we had a nice moment, not that long ago, where you said my choices were my own. I made them. I can't _undo_ them. Neither can Ellie, neither can Casey. Neither can you," he said pointedly, opening his eyes again.

"I just... I guess I never would've imagined Eleanor with Casey."

Chuck could see it. Casey was the antithesis of Stephen. Instead of flighty, solid. Instead of someone who ran away, someone who stood and fought. "We can discuss the particulars of Ellie's love-life later, if you're _really_ that interested."

"Does he make her happy?"

Chuck stopped, glancing back at his father. He nodded. "They're a better match," he admitted. "Devon wasn't bad by any means, it just... Things got too complicated too fast for them to be able to handle. It wasn't that he couldn't take it or she couldn't, it was that they couldn't figure it out together. And that... that doesn't make a marriage. That makes... That makes a divorce, I guess."

Stephen nodded slowly. While he'd never divorced his children's mother, they had separated. He wasn't sure if that was something similar, something he could relate to. Plus, the childhood he'd given to his children couldn't have been easy. He hadn't exactly been the poster parent for how to deal with what life could throw.

But, as Chuck had said, he couldn't undo that, not now.

Chuck looked at the security system from the exterior of the subway maintenance building. He flashed easily this time for the first time in a long time. He didn't feel like throwing up or falling over. With a half-grin, he set about turning off the alarms and securing access to the lower levels, so he could rescue his sister.

"We should hurry, Charles," Stephen said, glancing around.

Chuck closed the access panel then moved towards the door, his father on his heels. They moved quickly and silently through the building, descending several floors. He pushed Stephen back against the wall when he nearly stepped out in front of a guard. Holding up a hand to indicate his father should wait, Chuck slipped, undetected, down the hall and behind the pacing guard.

Stephen watched, amazed and appalled at the same time at the way the Intersect 2.0 was able to accomplish.

Chuck eased the knocked-out guard onto the ground, pressing on. Ellie had to be close, if they were protecting this particular floor. He tried several doors, finding only one that was locked.

"Dad," he hissed.

Stephen caught up quickly, watching as his son's focused on the lock. "Son?"

Chuck blinked twice when he recovered from the flash. He still wasn't falling over, which was such a relief. "I got this," he said. He jimmied the lock with a few easy flicks of his wrist and the use of lock picks he'd brought, just in case.

Ellie heard the door open, but it didn't slam. She looked cautiously over, to see what was going on now, if it was some kind of a new ploy.

For a moment, she couldn't believe her eyes. "Chuck?"

He nodded, grinning.

"Eleanor!"

"Dad!" she said, getting to her feet and rushing towards him. She couldn't exactly hug her father, not with her wrists in handcuffs, but she gladly accepted the one her father offered.

"Here," Chuck said, taking her hands. With another mini-flash, he was able to unfasten her restraints, letting them drop to the ground. "Let's get you the hell out of here, huh?"

Ellie smiled. "Definitely."

Chuck took point. Stephen hung back with Ellie, following Chuck's easy lead.

"How did you find me?" she asked.

"It was all Alex," Stephen told her.

"She's okay?"

"She's just fine."

Chuck charged up two flights of stairs, back to the street-level floor. Except, he stopped abruptly.

"So nice of you to join us," Shaw said with a smirk.

Ellie and Stephen didn't realize he'd stopped. The two nearly crashed into him.

"I see you found your sister, Chuck."

The Intersect set his jaw tightly. "Let her go, all right? I'm the one you want. Let them both go."

"Funny. You're not the one I want at all," Shaw said. Without hesitation, he fired two shots into Stephen's chest.

Ellie shrieked, trying desperately to grab onto her father before he fell.

"D... Dad... _Dad!_" Chuck yelled.

Shaw casually reached out, snatching the watch from Chuck's right wrist. As expected, Chuck crumpled to his knees.

Ellie was applying pressure to Stephen's wounds, trying to stay in doctor-mode, but it was difficult. It was her _father_ lying there.

"Take them both away," he said, nodding to the two guards behind him.

Chuck struggled, breaking free from from the agent that tried to restrain him, but not for long.

Ellie let several wild punches fly, desperate to get back to her father. She could save him. She could _help_ him, if they'd just let her go. "No... _No_!" she screamed as she was finally lifted clear off the ground and taken away.

Shaw watched as they were hauled off, then looked down at Stephen. He reached down, pulling his watch off as well, crushing it for good measure. There would only need to be one governor, for one true Intersect.

* * *

Stay tuned...

Lines from the next installment:

Casey and Sarah looked up when the back of the armored vehicle opened, when two new figures were shoved into the cage.

"Chuck!" Sarah exclaimed, both relieved and _fearful_ now that they were reunited.

He moved slowly, dejectedly, pushing himself up to sit on the metal bench beside her. "It's all over," he said quietly.

Ellie looked up at Casey, who set his jaw tightly when he saw the bruising on her face and the scabbed-over split in her lower lip as well as the pain in her watery hazel eyes. She eased down beside him, looking at the floor at their feet.


	7. Chapter 6

For notes and disclaimer, please see part one. Also... whoops. I forgot yesterday was Wednesday. Been a very crazy past few weeks. So, here we are, a day late. Many apologies. ~K

Here's a couple things you might need to know or maybe you just forgot: Casey and Sarah pick up Alex from the Buy More. Beckman gets a reprieve from her interrogation to get the story on Alex's being found safe, while Shaw tries to paint the Human Intersect Project as a broken team. Shaw finds out that Ellie was able to finagle Alex's release from custody and isn't happy. Stephen presents Chuck with a governor. Chuck and Stephen are tasked to look out for Alex while Casey and Sarah go to meet Beckman, except they wind up confronted by Kathleen and Justin, and taken into custody. Chuck and Stephen try to rescue Ellie but, as they're leaving, Shaw finds them, and kills Stephen. Shaw takes possession of one governor, destroying the other.

* * *

Morgan looked at the message on his phone, mildly puzzled. It was from a number he didn't recognize, and the spelling wasn't exactly spot-on.

_Grt to Castel_

Taking a slow, cautious breath, he glanced around the Buy More. It looked relatively peaceful, like a normal day. Granted, his "normal" had already included a visit with Casey's formerly kidnapped daughter.

He wondered if there was ever "normal" with spies. If there was ever anything that was easy and breezy.

The one thing he was leery of was entering Castle without proper protection, especially since he seemed to be _alone_ at the moment. With a sigh, he snagged one of the hand-held vacuum cleaners off the display in home appliances. It wasn't exactly a gun, or a baton, or even a can of mace, but it might do _some_ kind of damage against whoever might be down there, doing dastardly things.

The entire trip into the bowels of the top-secret base, he tried to keep his emotions in check. If Chuck could master his fears, then he could, too.

When he finally entered the empty command center, there was a peculiar sound, the sound of... of a paper shredder? "Hello?" he called out cautiously.

"Mr. Grimes!"

He looked toward the sound of the voice, seeing General Beckman on the large flat-screen television at the front of the room. "What are... General, are you okay?"

"We have a problem," she said, shoving another six sheets into the shredder. "Casey and Walker have been apprehended. And I can't locate Bartowski."

"What do you mean you can't locate him?"

"He's not answering his phone."

"There... They were taking Alex to a safe house..." He'd just _seen _Casey not that long ago. How could he be compromised already?

"_Find him_, understand?"

"I... yeah... are..."

"General Beckman, _open_ this door," said a stern voice just outside her office.

She turned, fully looking into the camera for the first time. "Mr. Grimes... you're my only hope."

Morgan watched, in horror and shock, as suited men forcibly entered the room and lifted the tiny General off the ground. She kicked and thrashed about, but she was no match at all for her captors.

He numbly left the hand-held vac on the conference table, heading back up to the Buy More. If Chuck wasn't answering his phone, maybe that meant his best friend in the world was in trouble, too. Oh, God, how was _he _supposed to save the day? He didn't have the Intersect or the training. He just _knew_ the truth about his coworkers and friends.

As he wandered vacantly back to the store, he heard his name being paged. With a heavy sigh, he headed towards the customer service desk.

A mix of emotions tumbled through his chest as he realized the gray-haired customer standing there wasn't someone with a complaint who wanted to talk to someone in management, but someone with experience. Someone with knowledge and wisdom. His very own Obi-Wan to his incredibly _inexperienced _Luke.

"Mrs. Casey?" he asked, astonished.

Joan, Casey's mother, turned to face him. "Mr. Grimes."

"I am _so_ glad to see you. We've... We've got quite a situation."

"I was afraid of that," she said quietly.

* * *

Casey and Sarah looked up when the back of the armored vehicle opened, when two new figures were shoved into the cage.

"Chuck!" Sarah exclaimed, both relieved and _fearful_ now that they were reunited.

He moved slowly, dejectedly, pushing himself up to sit on the metal bench beside her. "It's all over," he said quietly.

Ellie looked up at Casey, who set his jaw tightly when he saw the bruising on her face and the scabbed-over split in her lower lip as well as the pain in her watery hazel eyes. She eased down beside him, looking at the floor at their feet.

Casey reached over with his hands, both of them as they were cuffed together, and slowly tilted her face up towards his. Whoever had done that to her would _pay_ and pay dearly. It was bad enough, seeing the kind of torture Shaw had put his daughter through earlier that day, but now this? They'd physically attacked Ellie.

"I'm okay, John," she promised, her voice breaking only a little as she spoke.

All he could manage was a slight grunt. He wanted to believe her, but it was clear she'd been _hurt_. He'd always prided himself on avoiding emotional vulnerabilities. It had been why he'd let Kathleen go, why he'd let Ilsa walk out on him again. But with Ellie, it had been different. He hadn't been able to forget her, to distance himself from her, and look what had occurred _because_ of it.

Sarah gasped when she saw Ellie's hands. "Ellie, you're bleeding!"

"It's... It's not mine," she said, looking from Sarah back to Casey.

"What happened?" Sarah asked.

"What's happened? You've lost," Shaw said as he appeared in the open door, his hands on his hips. "It's all over for you, for all of you." He smiled, pleased with himself, as he spoke again. "Enjoy this ride together. It will be the last time any of you see the others."

Sarah narrowed her eyes, already trying to formulate a plan to kick Shaw's ass, when the cage door slammed shut.

"It's all over," Chuck said again, defeatist.

"Chuck, I... I know it's hard, but we can't... we can't give up," Ellie said.

"He took the governor," Chuck said, his eyes coming back into focus as he looked at his sister's face. "I can't... I can't work anymore. I _don't_ work anymore."

Something clicked in Ellie's memory. "What are you talking about? What... what's this _governor_ thing? That was why they took me, that was what they were after."

Chuck closed his eyes tightly at Ellie's admission. "I walked him right into their trap. I brought him right _to_ them..."

"Chuck, please, I don't understand," said Ellie, desperate to figure out what her brother was saying.

"The Intersect, it..." Sarah took a slow breath. "It isn't exact science. There have been some issues come up that we weren't fully expecting."

"The Intersect, that's what Chuck has, right? That's..." Ellie looked at her brother, who had mentally checked out. She didn't blame him, not after what they'd just seen. She looked at her hands resting on her lap, at the blood drying on her skin. Her _father's_ blood. She closed her eyes for a moment. _She_ had to concentrate.

"It... it's a lot of information, a lot of abilities stored in one of the most advanced computers known to man, the human brain, but it..." Sarah shook her head. "It's caused issues."

The doctor in Ellie reached the surface, giving her clarity of thought. "The stresses something like that could cause, it's... it's tremendous... isn't it?"

"The governor is the regulating device your father created to prevent those issues," continued Sarah.

"The watch..."

Sarah nodded.

"But, it doesn't matter anymore," Chuck said miserably. "Dad's gone, I'm useless... There's no one left to save us."

* * *

The black Ford Crown Victoria pulled down the long gravel drive to the cabin, kicking up a small cloud of dirt and dust along the way.

Alex peeked out through the thin curtains, excited to see the familiar car. Her father was back.

Her _father_.

That was still something odd, something to get used to. Of course, her entire world had been turned upside down in the past few days. While she wasn't sure things would ever get back to the way they used to be, she had decided maybe that was all right.

She'd always wondered about her father. He had supposedly died so young, but her mother had often talked about his quiet strength and his own brand of kindness and generosity. She'd come to expect that from John, the patron. She'd never once imagined that he'd actually _be_ her father. But now that she knew the truth, she couldn't imagine her father being any other way.

Stepping out onto the front porch of the cabin, she wanted to welcome him with open arms, but the driver wasn't exactly over six feet. And the passenger was someone she'd never seen before either. "Uh..."

"Hey, Alex," Morgan said as he closed the driver's side door.

"What's going on?" she asked cautiously.

"Well..." Morgan slowly crossed towards her. "I know you've had a pretty trying few days, and you've met one new family member already, but there's someone else I'd like for you to meet."

Alex looked at the older woman. "Okay," she said slowly.

"Joan, this is Alex McHugh. Alex, this is Joan Casey... Your grandmother."

Alex regarded the older woman for a moment. She had familiar blue eyes, ones that looked remarkably like _her own_. "My... _grandmother_?" she asked.

Joan smiled warmly, taking the girl's hand in both of hers. "I used to be Elizabeth Coburn," she explained.

"I..." Alex looked at Morgan quickly, trying to take it all in.

"Confusing, I know, but..." Morgan sighed. "We really don't have the luxury of detailing the family tree at the moment, Alex. Something's happened."

* * *

Ellie rested her head against Casey's shoulder as the van continued to rumble along.

Casey knew they had long since left the freeway. He wasn't entirely sure where they were, but it was on a more rural highway. While he had assumed they would be taken to some CIA facility-his captors had implied that-he had a feeling they would be executed before the hour was up, their bodies left in a ravine somewhere, far from prying eyes. It would be days, maybe weeks before they were found, if they ever were.

He very lightly kissed Ellie's hair. "Thank you."

"For what?" she asked, looking up at him.

That dark bruising under her eye made his stomach churn again. His one biggest regret would be not paying back the son of a bitch who had done that to her, if they didn't make it out of the van alive. But, he couldn't think about that. Not yet. "For saving my daughter's life."

"You've saved mine and Chuck's a hundred times over. It was the least I could do," she said, offering a ghost of a smile.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about her sooner."

"It's okay, John," she said, resting against him again. She looked over at Chuck, who wasn't looking at anything or anyone, who hadn't said a word since he'd declared their situation hopeless. She couldn't think about that. She couldn't think about her father's loss either, not yet. "John...?"

"Yeah?" he asked.

"How are we going to get out of this?"

He was silent for a long moment. He had a few ideas. None of them were exactly plausible. He blamed hanging out with the nerds a little too long for a few of the more far-fetched ones, which included a super soldier serum and turning green when angered so he could easily break their restraints and smash through the reinforced steel walls of the armored vehicle. With a slow breath, he glanced at his partner.

It was clear Sarah didn't like being caged anymore than he did, that she was itching to get out, to issue a little extra payback against a certain supposedly _dead_ agent.

He was really starting to get annoyed at how often spies died and came back to life.

Granted, he was one of those, too. While Alex Coburn had died, John Casey had lived on.

He realized he was getting distracted and pulled himself back together. Dwelling on the past, on things he couldn't change, wouldn't get them rescued any faster.

"I'm working on it," he told her.

* * *

"You shouldn't follow so closely."

"You know, you're making me really _nervous_. This is my first tailing experience, all right!" Morgan huffed.

"I understand, and you're doing a _great_ job so far," Joan reminded him gently.

Alex watched, somewhat amazed, at her grandmother's ability to take a situation and turn it on its head. Morgan was anxious and Joan, while trying to be helpful, had only inflamed the situation with her suggestion but then was able to douse the fire in a sweet little old lady type fashion.

She was so glad she had found more family.

"Are you sure that's them?" Alex asked, looking at the armored vehicle in the distance.

"Quite sure," Joan said, pointing at the GPS read-out on the dashboard. "This is Johnny's car. That's Johnny's GPS reading in his watch. And, from the look of things, I'm going to assume that's his partner, Sarah's, and Chuck's as well."

"Not to be, y'know, a party pooper or anything, but I kinda feel like a dog chasing after a bumper here. Now that I've got it, what the _hell_ do I do with it?"

"Just remain calm, Morgan. The opportunity will present itself," Joan explained, turning her blue gaze back to the road in front of them.

"The... that sounds kinda like a vague spy thing that I'm not fully sure I'm capable of dealing with."

"Take a deep breath," Joan instructed. She waited, listening as the well-meaning civilian did exactly as she said. "Better?"

"No, not really. I'm still not sure what to do! I mean... do I ram it?"

"No."

"Do I try to run it off the road?"

"Its weight versus ours, it isn't advisable," Joan said.

"Then...?"

"Look!" Alex said excitedly from her position in the back. The van pulled off the road just ahead, beneath a few shaded trees.

"Pull over here, Morgan," Joan said.

Morgan did as instructed, kind of impressed with the old lady's authoritative and calm _spy_ voice.

Joan reached for the glove box, finding exactly what she assumed she'd find there: a selection of weaponry. She glanced back at Alex as the passengers in the front of the armored vehicle stepped out. "I know this is kind of a startling question, but how are you with firearms, dear?"

"Uh... Well... Not... not that great. But, I've taken self-defense classes for a long time. I'm pretty good in a fist-fight." She wasn't sure why her grandmother's approval was suddenly important, but it was. And when Joan smiled, she felt more at ease.

"Morgan?" Joan asked.

He let out a high-pitched squeaking noise. "Fair to middlin', I'd say."

Joan offered him a handgun, which he took.

He wasn't entirely sure it was _his_ kind of gun, though. It looked small and not exactly manly. Why John Casey would have a gun in his car that _wasn't_ manly seemed completely incongruous. John Casey was the manliest man Morgan knew. "Y'know, there isn't... isn't there something a little _bigger_ in there?" Morgan asked, reaching to put the gun back into the glove box. "I may be small, but I can pack a _wallop_, y'know?" he asked, shooting a grin at Alex.

The gun, however, hit a button inside the glove box, and a targeting interface appeared on the windshield while Joan was checking the ammunition in the weapon she'd selected for herself.

"Uh... Grandma?" Alex ventured.

Morgan swallowed hard. "Well, if I turned it on with a button, I'm sure I can turn it off with-"

"Morgan, I wouldn't do that if I were you," Joan cautioned, but it was too late.

A rocket-propelled grenade launched from beneath the left headlight.

"What the _hell_?" Morgan asked, watching as the projectile flew through the air, heading _straight_ towards the van.

* * *

Casey heard the familiar _whoosh_ from inside the back of the armored vehicle. While they didn't have much of an opportunity to prepare, they had a moment. "Incoming!"

Sarah held onto Chuck's hands tightly, bracing herself. Chuck barely looked up at Casey when he'd issued his warning.

Ellie felt Casey's arms go around her, holding her tightly, even though his hands were still bound in front of her. "What's going-"

She didn't get a chance to finish her question because they were suddenly airborne. She was reminded, however briefly, of rides on a roller coaster. The feeling of zero gravity was more intense, however, when they all four were lifted from their seats.

She couldn't prevent the scream, even if she'd wanted to.

She tried to tell herself it was just like the roller coaster, that they were coming down the big hill. If she closed her eyes, she could almost picture a sunny day at an amusement park, with Casey's arms around her, protecting her from more mundane fears.

The excitement was over almost as quickly as it had begun, with the four of them on a heaping pile on the floor of the truck. Except, the floor of the truck was now one of the walls.

"Everybody okay?" Casey asked.

Sarah coughed, having had the wind knocked out of her in the fall.

Chuck groaned slightly. He opened his eyes for a half a second but, unable to see clearly, he allowed his heavy lids to close.

"What _was_ that?" Ellie asked.

"Sounded like an RPG," Casey admitted, slowly releasing her. He moved slowly, painfully, as he attempted to crawl towards the door, in the hopes of seeing _something_ out the tiny windows.

* * *

"Dad!" Alex charged out of the back of the car, rushing towards the smoking, smoldering van. Joan was right behind her, her gun drawn and at the ready.

Morgan realized the only good thing was that the two who had been in the front of the armored car were now on the ground. He hoped they were knocked out and not dead. He wasn't sure he could deal with having _killed_ someone. When he saw the overturned van, however, his heart not only sank, he was pretty sure it stopped beating.

"Johnny?" Joan called.

"_Mom_?" Casey asked, muffled.

"Everybody, back from the door. And plug your ears!" Joan ordered. After hearing the shuffling of movement from within the van, she glanced at Alex, who had covered her own ears. She fired twice at the lock, and the exterior doors fell open. "One more. Hang on," she said, looking through the barred doors to see her son and his friends.

Once the interior door lock was taken care of, Sarah climbed out first, followed by Ellie.

Chuck wasn't exactly moving.

"Ch... Chuck?" Sarah asked, looking back into the van.

Ellie swallowed hard. "Did he hit his head?"

Sarah shrugged. "I... I don't know. He might've..."

"If he hit his head... and he's having problems enough already..." She drifted off. "We need to get him to a medical facility. As quickly as possible."

Casey lifted the younger man onto his shoulders, fireman carrying him out of the back.

"You've got lock picks in the car, right?" Sarah asked, glancing back at Casey after having seen his Crown Victoria.

"Center console," Casey answered.

"Let's get out of here," Sarah said, racing to the Ford. She pulled the picks from a small drawer in the center of the dash, finding them easily, and worked quickly to free herself and the others, starting with Ellie.

Morgan exited the car, standing at the open door. "You guys okay?"

"Grimes. In the back," Casey ordered.

Morgan slid into the backseat, as did the newly-freed Ellie and Alex.

"Ellie...?" asked Casey.

"We can take him back here," she said, looking at her brother's ashen face. If the governor had been the only thing keeping her brother awake and alert, and the pressure of having all those secrets, all that information in his brain was getting to him, she feared for his getting back home alive, as well as his survival until she could find some kind of replacement.

Because she would be damned if she'd lose the rest of her family in one day.

Sarah climbed into the front, sliding into the middle of the seat. She bent over to the back, working on Chuck's handcuffs as Joan joined her.

As Casey took the wheel of his car, his hands still cuffed, he saw the driver of the van shake his head as he climbed out of the fallen vehicle before stumbling toward the road, aiming his gun square at the car. "Hold on!" Casey said, slamming his car into gear and, tires squealing, peeled out of there.

Sarah had to abandon her work on Chuck's cuffs, shooting Ellie an apologetic look as she moved to sit down properly.

Ellie just nodded, holding onto Chuck a little tighter. He was crammed in on top of them, his head on her arm, his feet on Morgan's legs.

Morgan ducked when he heard the familiar sound of semiautomatic gunfire, but was even more surprised when the glass behind them didn't shatter. "Bullet-proof glass, big guy?" Morgan asked, nodding approvingly.

"Save the questions, _moron_, till I get us the hell outta Dodge," he said.

"Johnny," Joan chided lightly.

Casey sighed. "Sorry, Mom."

Alex and Morgan exchanged amused glances.

When Casey took a hard turn, Sarah and Joan both practically fell into him. Ellie had to hold onto Chuck tightly to prevent him from moving around too much.

"It'll be okay, Chuck," Ellie whispered. "Just hang on..."

* * *

Stay tuned...

Lines from the next installment:

"Off... Off-grid? What do you mean exactly?" Alex asked. She was pretty sure she'd heard that term watching a spy movie, but she wasn't sure she liked the implications it had for her life.

"It means you and Ellie stay safe. You stay away from me, from the rest of us."

Alex shook her head. "No. No way."

"What?" Casey asked, astonished at the spunk his little girl had.

"I'm not going anywhere, except somewhere I can help you."

"You can help me by getting out of here safely," Casey insisted.

"Will not happen," Alex said stubbornly.

"Like father, like long-estranged daughter," Morgan said with a slight smile.


	8. Chapter 7

For notes and disclaimer, please see part one.

Here's a couple things you might need to know or maybe you just forgot: Beckman calls on her only hope, Morgan, to find Chuck after Casey and Sarah are apprehended. Luckily, Morgan's got help in the form of Casey's mother, Joan. Ellie and Chuck, in Shaw's custody, are tossed into the back of an armored van with Sarah and Casey, bound for destinations unknown. Chuck isn't dealing with his father's death very well, and Casey is seething about Ellie's injuries. When Shaw stops on the side of the road, it's Morgan, Joan and Alex to the rescue. Morgan accidentally fires an RPG from Casey's car, and Joan frees the captive agents. Chuck is non-responsive as they make their escape under a hail of gunfire.

* * *

Alex and Morgan watched from the cabin's kitchen, leaning against the counter, watching Casey, Sarah, and Joan. The spies were saying things the civilians could only attempt to comprehend.

"It's not _just_ a security conference," Joan said. "Every intelligence person who is _anybody_ is going to be there."

"So, if Shaw's got some big announcement to make, it's definitely going to be there," Sarah said, crossing her arms over her chest.

Casey sighed, rubbing at the back of his neck. "Our reputations are shot. They're not going to let us get within a hundred feet of the meeting." He hated what he said next, but he wasn't sure there was any way around it any longer. "The Ring has won," he said, practically growling.

"The..." Morgan stepped forward, shaking his head. "Big guy, are you listening to yourself? I've known you a long time, not _incredibly_ well for a while, but I think I know you _well enough_ to know that the great John Casey doesn't back down from a fight, not even when the odds are stacked against him. You aren't going to just stand idly by and let the bad guys win. That's... that's _un-American_, and if there's one thing I know about you, Casey, it's that you bleed red, white and blue. What's... what's the plan?"

Casey pondered Morgan's mini-speech and, as much as he hated to admit it, the troll had some good points. "First things first. Alex, you're going to have to go off-grid. And Ellie, too."

"She's not going to like that," Sarah said quietly.

"Off... Off-grid? What do you mean exactly?" Alex asked. She was pretty sure she'd heard that term watching a spy movie, but she wasn't sure she liked the implications it had for her life.

"It means you and Ellie stay safe," Casey explained. "You stay away from me, from the rest of us."

Alex shook her head. "No. No way."

"What?" Casey asked, astonished at the spunk his little girl had.

"I'm not going anywhere, except somewhere I can help you."

"You can help me by getting out of here safely," Casey insisted.

"Will not happen," Alex said stubbornly.

"Like father, like long-estranged daughter," Morgan said with a slight smile.

Casey shook his head. "This isn't up for debate, Alex."

The discussion was immediately forgotten, however, when Chuck slowly sauntered into the room; Ellie was at his heels. "What are we talking about?" Chuck asked, smiling a little.

While his coloring still wasn't quite back to normal, Sarah couldn't help but feel elated that he was up and walking and talking. "Chuck," she whispered, rushing to give him a hug.

"Easy," he said with a smile, accepting the embrace. "My doctor, here, says I have a bit of a nasty knot on the back of my head from our high-flying adventures, but I'll be fine. Mild concuss..." He drifted off when his eyes unfocused and the Intersect offered a fizzling flash. Struggling to remain erect, he took a slow breath. "Mild concussion," he finished.

Casey looked at Ellie. While she'd grabbed a quick shower and had changed into new clothes, the side of her face was still swollen and bruised, and her lip was still split. He sighed heavily.

"So, what are we talking about?" Chuck asked.

"Getting the civilians to safety, going after Shaw at the security conference," Casey provided.

"Planning. Good. Excellent. What's the plan?" asked Chuck, keeping an arm around Sarah's shoulder, partly because he wanted the contact and partially because he was afraid he'd fall over without her help.

"I was just telling Alex how she and Ellie needed to go off-grid, to get safe," said Casey.

"And I was just telling my father that that wasn't going to happen," Alex said, standing her ground.

"I'm not leaving either," Ellie said.

"Doc..."

"No, you need a physician here. Chuck needs me. I'm still not convinced we all haven't cracked or bruised something from our roll in that van. I'm not leaving," she said. "And that's final."

"Ellie, please," Casey begged. His voice was low, strained.

It was like all of the air had been sucked out of the room. None of them had ever heard the Marine plea quite like that before.

Morgan gently guided Alex out of the living room and further into the cabin, to give Casey and Ellie a moment. Joan, Chuck and Sarah weren't far behind.

"Why? I'm not... I'm not about to run from this, John."

"I can't put you in harm's way intentionally again. I _can't_."

"You aren't. _I_ am," she said.

He reached out, his fingers grazing the tender skin beneath her eye, around her mouth. "It's not your job, Ellie. It's not your place."

"That's where you're wrong," she insisted. "It is _exactly_ my place. They took my father from me. They tried to take me away from you, away from Chuck. They _used_ me to get to my father. I'm... it's because of me that he's gone now, John. It's because of _that_... That's the reason I can't leave. That's the reason I have to see this through."

"It's... Ellie, we sent your father an encoded message the same day you sent one. We needed him down here as much as they did. It isn't your fault."

"You... you aren't _getting_ this, John. I need to be here. I have to be here. I have to _avenge_ this."

He placed his strong arms on her shoulders, holding her steady. "This isn't a place for revenge, Ellie," he told her. "It's a place for justice. It's all it can ever be."

"I need to help fix this," she insisted.

He took a slow breath.

"Please, let me help fix this," she pleaded, tears rolling down her cheeks.

He pulled her close with a sigh, holding her tightly, protectively against his chest.

It took a while, but eventually she felt him nod.

* * *

Ellie sat with Chuck, both quiet in the living room of the cabin. Casey, Sarah, Joan, Morgan and Alex had left some hours ago for a supply run, leaving the siblings to rest. While it hadn't been particularly restful, Ellie was just glad she wasn't sitting in some cell, wondering if she'd ever see anyone she cared about again.

Chuck tried not to think of anything. He tried not to remember what he'd seen earlier in the day. Most importantly, he tried not to flash. The very last thing he wanted was to have some kind of episode where Ellie might be forced to try to resuscitate him or do some other strictly doctorly-type maneuver. Like something with a needle.

He hated needles.

Both jumped when they heard the sound of a car pulling up the drive, then what had to be another, and possibly a third.

Ellie's initial fear was that they were surrounded.

Chuck crossed to the front window, peeking out the curtain, spying a familiar black Ford and a pair of SUVs. "Stand down, Ellie. It's just Team Bartowski." He looked back at his sister, flashing her a grin.

Ellie moved quickly, helping the others bring in bag after bag of equipment and gear. By the time the three cars were emptied, the living room floor was covered in a myriad of items. There were weapons and ammunition along the right wall of the room. Communications gear, along the left. Tactical gear and body armor were lined up along the back. The coffee table had been turned into a makeup station. Clothing hung from the fireplace mantle.

For a rustic place, it looked like a CIA/NSA joint base of operations.

Casey stood back, admiring their handiwork.

"This is... _crazy_ impressive," admitted Alex.

Casey handed her a new package of batteries. "Start loading the comm gear, will you? I mean, if you're going to stay, you have to be useful," he said, a hint of teasing in his voice.

She actually looked excited at the prospect of helping out, and headed to the left wall.

"Sarah, dear, would you like to help me with an ammo count?" Joan asked.

The CIA agent tried not to grin _too_ brightly. After all, Elizabeth Coburn was a legend in her agency. And she was about to get to work with her.

"What can I do?" Morgan asked, rubbing his hands together. "Clean the guns? Count the grenades? What?"

Casey regarded the young man for a moment. "Give Bartowski a hand, will you?" Casey asked, handing Morgan the three brand new laptop boxes.

"Nerd Herd kinda stuff... You... you got it," he said, trying not to be disappointed.

"Bring it on over, buddy," Chuck said, sitting at the dining table. "Let's get to formatting and encrypting."

With the cabin a flurry of activity, Ellie wasn't sure what to do or where to start. She stood in the center of the room, watching as Morgan and Chuck did what they did best, as Alex took particular pride in her part of the preparation, and as Sarah and Joan seemed to work seamlessly with each other. She closed her eyes when she felt a warm hand on her shoulder. "John..."

"Are you all right?" he asked.

She nodded, leaning back against him. "Just tired."

"This'll all be over soon," he promised, grim determination in his voice.

* * *

Ellie drove one of the SUVs to the conference. Joan sat in the passenger seat, dressed to the nines in a stunning steel-colored suit, her hair exquisitely coiffed, her makeup done to perfection. Sarah and Chuck, sitting in the back, were nearly unrecognizable. Chuck wore a prosthetic nose and a gray wig in an expensive suit. The cane he was to use rested against his knees. Sarah wore a black bob wig, a short dress and a long jacket.

It was definitely something that would take some getting used to, seeing those she loved dressed up like that.

Ellie parked around the back of the building.

"You're doing great, dear," Joan praised.

Ellie smiled a little, but it never quite reached her eyes. She was worried, nervous. While Casey and Morgan were going in with body armor, there wasn't much room for protection in any of _their_ outfits.

"Ellie, I was wondering if you would do me a favor," Joan began.

She glanced over. "Anything, Joan. What do you need?"

Joan looked at the distinctive blue-diamond ring on her finger, slipping it off. "Keep this safe for me."

"Oh, Joan, I..."

"You took such good care of Johnny's ring. I'm sure you'll do the same for mine," Joan said, placing the vintage ring in Ellie's open palm and closing her fingers around it.

The doctor nodded before slipping the ring onto her own ring finger, amazed at how perfectly it seemed to fit on her hand as well.

"Ready?" Sarah asked.

"Let's do this," Chuck said, easing out of the back seat.

Ellie waited until all three of her passengers had rounded the corner and were heading for the front when she lifted her hand-held radio, depressing the talk button. "In position. Packages delivered."

She only felt a _tiny_ bit silly with the spy jargon but she felt almost completely at ease a moment later when she heard Casey's reply: "Copy that. Stand by."

* * *

Alex sat behind the wheel of the SUV parked at the opposite side of the hotel complex. She tapped her fingers nervously on the steering wheel. It was nothing like anything she'd ever experienced. Nothing like anything she could even remotely _think_ to compare it to. The excitement and adrenaline coursing through her body made her feel alive in a way she'd never known possible.

She wondered, as she watched her father and Morgan on the security feed on the laptop, if _spying _was something that could be hereditary. Between her father and even her _grandmother_, it seemed like it might very well be the case. Even after everything that had happened, she wondered if she had missed her calling, if she'd found it, now that she'd found her family.

It wasn't just Casey and Joan, however, she was looking up to now. It wasn't just them that she wanted to emulate.

Sarah was a kick-ass agent, strong and trained and knowledgeable. Chuck and Morgan may have been thrust into the spy game, but they handled their accidental positions with a kind of ease. And then there was Ellie. Ellie who had a grace and poise and spirit without the benefit of government, well, anything. She wasn't an agent. She wasn't an asset.

She was a doctor. She was someone who should've been somewhere else entirely. She was someone who accepted her place, her position with the ability to adapt, to adjust.

It had been because of Ellie she'd been set free. And she'd never forget that.

* * *

Sarah could tell that Chuck was on-edge, that he was _not_ the calm, centered spy he needed to be, that he was a bundle of nerves and raw energy. While she wasn't exactly a science geek, she was pretty sure that wasn't a good combination. She was fairly certain that it had the potential to be especially _awful_.

"Remember, Chuck, what we're here to do..."

"I'm well aware," he said, his voice tight but twinged with the Russian accent.

Joan moved through the room with certainty. Even having been out of the spy game for years, she had an uncanny ability to know who was who, to remember names and faces and put them together, even aged twenty plus years.

There was a reason she was a legend, after all.

She played her part to perfection, keeping everyone off balanced, distracted, trying to place her, keeping the attention off of Chuck and his false nose, off of Sarah and her dark bob, giving Chuck the opportunity to make his way toward the server room. She even approached Shaw with gusto, speaking to him in perfect Russian, planting the cell phone with the effortless ease of years of practice.

Sarah sighed as Joan fell back into step with her, after Shaw walked away.

"Here, dear," Joan said, snagging two champagne flutes from a passing server and offering her one.

The younger agent accepted it but didn't drink.

"The plan is solid," Joan reminded her. When Sarah still didn't seem convinced, she turned to look at her fully. "Everything will be fine," she assured her.

* * *

Justin frowned when he heard the Mexican Hat Dance erupt on stage. He knew that there wasn't a musical interlude planned for the middle of Shaw's speech. What was momentarily frightening, however, was the look on Shaw's face. It had only been in passing. While to a lesser observer, it might've seemed like Shaw was embarrassed that his phone had gone off in the middle of the session, Justin knew that something was wrong.

When his cell phone vibrated in his pocket, when the message came in that he needed to get out of there with the rest of the higher-ups of the Ring organization, he sprang to action.

Clearly, he hadn't been the only one to notice that there was something amiss with Shaw's presentation, as all he really had to do was stand. The Ring Elders looked at him expectantly. A quick flick of his head was all they needed to see to move.

He politely excused himself down the aisle before lingering in the lobby, just outside the auditorium's door.

"What's going on?" demanded one of the Elders.

"For your safety, we need to go," Justin said simply. "This way." He herded them through the service corridors, through a route he had memorized on the off-chance of some emergency happening.

* * *

"They're on the move, Dad, headed down the left stairwell."

Casey led the way, following Alex's verbal directions. "Must be cars in the sub-levels. Ellie, I need you on stand-by to block the exit."

Ellie didn't even pause before answering: "Understood."

"You're really gonna have Ellie ram 'em?" Morgan asked, struggling to keep up with Casey's long strides.

"I'm not going to let these criminals get away," he said simply.

Morgan still wasn't sure he was exactly on board with Casey's new, improved, _improvised_ plan, but he wasn't sure he was in any kind of position to advocate against it either.

As they entered the stairwell, however, Casey could hear a herd of footsteps clattering down from above. The Marine threatened Morgan with a mere look to stay completely, absolutely quiet.

As Justin led the way down, he found himself at the mercy of Casey's rifle.

"Got'cha," Casey sneered.

"John..." Ellie's voice was strained over the radio. "The guy in the lead..."

Morgan glanced at the big guy awkwardly.

Casey never once broke eye-contact with Justin. "Grimes, you know what to do." His gun never wavered from its target as he lifted a hand to his ear. "Go ahead," he told Ellie.

"He's the one who held me captive. John, he's the one that hit me."

While he'd told Ellie that the spy life was no place for vengeance, there was always the opportunity for some kind of accident while in transport to a CIA holding facility. "Copy that," he said through clenched teeth.

* * *

It was one hell of a plan. Joan watched from the event floor as Chuck managed to worm a confession out of Shaw with relative ease about working for the Ring, about being a traitor to his country, about doing things, bad things that would lead to his spending the rest of his life in an underground cell, away from daylight, away from anyone.

Joan smiled at Sarah who then rushed to help Chuck up in Shaw's room.

It was while Sarah was running that Joan realized something was off.

Shaw said something to Chuck quietly. And she saw the anger burning in Chuck's dark eyes. She saw Chuck's eyes glaze and the vein in his forehead become prominent.

"Sarah, dear, you're going to need to hurry. I think Chuck's in trouble." Joan made her way into the interior of the hotel. "Alex, do you still have remote access to the hotel's security?"

"Yes."

"Keep one of the elevator shafts clear. We're going to need it," she said. She didn't stop until she reached the bank of elevators. While it took a few seconds, one of the doors opened up and she stepped inside. "Are we clear here?"

"In control," radioed Alex. "Where are we going?"

"Stay here on the first floor," Joan replied. "Ellie... You'd best get in here."

* * *

By the time Sarah reached the suite, it was too late. Chuck was on the ground and Shaw was out the broken window.

"Chuck? _Chuck!_"

"Help me," he managed, his voice weak, his eyes unable to focus.

"Ellie, I need you up here _right now_," Sarah radioed. "Hang on, Chuck, all right? Ellie's going to come. You're going to be fine..."

Part of Chuck wanted to give up. Part of Chuck realized that Shaw was the better agent, the better man. Not better in a good way, but better in an impossible to _beat_ way. It didn't matter what Chuck did, Shaw still seemed to be a step ahead of him. Even killing him hadn't worked out the way Chuck had it planned.

He needed the governor, desperately, and if Shaw wouldn't give it up, and Chuck was going to have to take it by force, there was just no way for him to win. There was no way for the situation to end, conceivably, well.

As he lay on the carpet, his head a throbbing mess, he wondered about his father's last moments, laying on the ground, looking up at the ceiling. He wondered if Stephen had felt the frustration of loss, of failure.

It seemed like an eternity for Ellie to arrive, but when she practically did a baseball slide onto the floor beside her brother, looking in his eyes with a penlight, checking his heart beat, his breathing.

"El..."

"I'm right here, Chuck," she said, still in doctor-mode, in protective big sister-mode. When Chuck's eyes closed, when she couldn't rouse him, not with any verbal question, not with any physical prod, she swallowed hard and lifted her radio again. "John, we need an emergency med evac. Right now."

"Ellie?" Sarah asked.

Joan moved wordlessly into the room, pulling Sarah gently back from the siblings.

"Ellie, what's going on... what's... is he going to wake up?" Sarah tried desperately to get her mouth to work cooperatively with her brain, to get out the questions she wanted-no, that she _needed _answered.

The problem was, Ellie couldn't answer. Not yet.

* * *

General Beckman sat at her desk, a little worse for wear, much like the rest of them. She listened as Casey gave his full report from Castle, as Sarah occasionally added a bit of information. While catching the Elders had been quite a coup and had gotten them their jobs back and their records relatively cleared, there were still the remaining issue of Shaw.

When he'd vanished, when he'd made it out of the hotel, he'd been lost. No one knew where he was heading, where he was going.

"I think the best way for us to handle this," Casey said, "is to split up."

"What do you mean, Colonel?" asked Beckman.

"Shaw knows all of us, knows our weaknesses... He knows who we care about," he said, glancing at his mother. "The civilians... Grimes, the others... we need to get them out of here, to four completely different corners, hidden and safe."

Joan bristled at being called a civilian. "Shaw doesn't know who I am," she said, speaking up from where she sat further back in the conference room.

"While I appreciate your skill set, Bluebird," Beckman said, "we're at the greatest disadvantage we can possibly know. With Chuck's Intersect down and out... there's little that we can do to combat another Intersect."

"Ellie won't leave either," Sarah said. "She won't leave Chuck while he's recuperating."

"It doesn't matter," Beckman said. "It's too dangerous. There's no way that I can guarantee the safety of _any _of the civilians. Not to mention the fact that there are entirely too many civilians that know about what's going on at the Buy More these days. Besides that, Shaw has already killed Stephen Bartowski. The potential is there to eradicate the entire Bartowski line."

Casey narrowed his eyes. "That's entirely too harsh, General."

"I'm trying to protect _your_ family as well, Colonel," she shot back.

"_His _family wants to help," Alex said defiantly.

Joan smiled at her granddaughter grimly.

"Your mother is already being moved into protective custody, Ms. McHugh. While she doesn't know the full scope of the details about Colonel Casey, she knows too much. She has asked that you join her in witness protection."

Alex bit the inside of her cheek before shaking her head. "With all due respect, ma'am, I'm a Casey now."

Beckman sighed heavily. "How did I wind up with the most _stubborn_ people on the planet in one room?"

"I guess it runs in the family," Casey said.

The general threw her hands in the air. "Fine. But, Colonel, I'm holding you personally responsible. _Fix. This_."

"Yes, ma'am."

* * *

Stay tuned...

Lines from the next installment:

Shaw was seated on the Nerd Herd desk as blissful, clueless shoppers continued to wander around the store. He smirked when he saw the Marine enter.

Casey strode toward him, ignoring the comments from Jeff, Lester and his other "coworkers." He stopped several feet from Shaw.

"You don't listen very well," Shaw said, sliding off the desk.

Casey merely grunted.

"Well, if _that's_ still your primary form of communication, I can see why something might get lost in caveman translation. Doesn't matter, because I will get what I want... and you and the others? You will lose _everything_."

"Well, I guess we're just going to have to see about that, won't we?"


	9. Chapter 8

For notes and disclaimer, please see part one. And, deep apologies for missing out on last week. It's been a crazy year already... ~K

Here's a couple things you might need to know or maybe you just forgot: Team Bartowski works on planning how to take down Shaw and the Elders at the intelligence conference and, as much as Casey wants those he loves safe, the team now includes the civilians. It's all-hands-on-deck at the conference, with Ellie and Alex in the waiting SUVs, Chuck, Sarah, Casey, Morgan and Joan inside. The plan goes off without much of a hitch-Justin Sullivan and the Ring Elders are captured, but Shaw gets away. With the team reinstated and Beckman back at her post, the team is tasked with figuring out what happened to Shaw. And while Beckman tries to protect those who aren't agents, they're not having any of it.

* * *

After all the flurry of activity, after all the adrenaline, there was little left to do but try to figure out where to go next. Morgan headed back up to the Buy More, to put in a cover shift at the electronics store. Ellie sat quietly with Chuck in one of the rooms in the back of Castle, watching as her brother slept fitfully.

Casey, Sarah and Joan sat in the front, each working every contact, every lead, every possibility, no matter how remote, to try to find Shaw again.

Alex, meanwhile, flitted in and amongst them all. She brought water to Ellie, coffee to her father, and lunch to Sarah. From time to time, she even ran up to the Buy More to check in with Morgan, to bring the nonexistent, unchanging news about Chuck's condition.

Joan removed her glasses, rubbing at the bridge of her nose for a moment. Her blue diamond ring, having been protected by Ellie before returned to its owner, sparkled in the fluorescent light. "Shaw is still CIA, correct?"

"For the moment," grumbled Casey.

"I could call my old partner, see what else he knows, see who he can talk to," Joan suggested.

"No offense, Mom, but I'm not sure how someone who has been out of the Agency a while is going to be of much help."

"Oh, no, Monty still works for the CIA."

Sarah struggled to try to remember from the stories, who her partner was. Monty wasn't exactly ringing any bells. "Monty?"

"Well, _Montgomery_."

Casey suddenly had a bad feeling. "Montgomery _who_?"

"Actually, it's _who_ Montgomery."

Casey looked at his mother. "Not Roan Montgomery..."

Her wrinkled blue eyes lit up. "You know him?"

Rather than speaking ill of his mother's former partner, Casey grunted, pushing his chair back from the computer he'd been working on and excused himself.

"Johnny?" Joan called after him.

"It's all right, Joan," Sarah promised. "He doesn't exactly get along with _Monty_. Might want to give him a minute..."

* * *

Morgan smiled a little when he saw Alex come back in, this time with a cup of frozen yogurt from the Orange Orange. "It's not getting any better, is it?"

"Well, not yet," she said, tucking her long dark hair behind her ear. "But, everybody's working on it, doing what they need to do."

"Yeah, everybody but you and me," Morgan grumbled, taking a large bite of the pineapple-mango flavored treat.

"We're doing something," she said. "Moral support."

"Yeah, more like that's what _you're_ doing. Me? I'm sitting up here... not selling a damn thing..." He sighed.

"But you're on call, at the ready in case they need something."

"I _guess_," he said, appreciating that she was trying to make him feel better.

He took another bite of yogurt before looking up, his eyes searching the store for any signs of potential trouble. Of Lester or Jeff coming to leer at her, of Big Mike coming to fuss at him for slacking in his responsibilities, or someone trying to _steal_ something.

What he never expected to see, however, was _Shaw_. He never expected to see Shaw walk through the front door.

He quickly slid off the chest freezer he'd been sitting on, tugging Alex down to the ground with him.

"Wh-Morgan?"

"Shh," he hissed. Abandoning his yogurt, they crawled toward the home theater room.

Alex glanced around, peering around every aisle they passed. She froze when she saw Shaw, her captor, standing there, large as life.

Morgan slipped into the home theater room, pulling out his cell phone and dialing Sarah's number, fully expecting Alex to be right behind her. "This is bad, so bad, very bad," he muttered. "I think there's a secret door out of here, though, I think we'll be..." He stopped when he realized he was talking to himself. "Alex?"

He ended the call before Sarah picked up, heading back onto the sales floor.

* * *

Ellie glanced back when she saw the shadows move and adjust, when Casey stood in the doorway. She slowly got to her feet, turning to face him. "Hey."

"How is he?"

The words were difficult to get out, but she managed. "No change."

He crossed to her, cupping her face in his hand briefly, hopefully reassuringly. It still bothered him, to see the yellowing bruises on her face, the swelling that was slowly going down. He'd made sure Justin Sullivan hit every wall, every bump, every possible _anything_ on the way into federal custody. But it hadn't made him feel any better.

She closed her eyes at his touch. She wished, more than anything, that when she opened them again, that it would've all been some kind of horrible dream. That Chuck would be okay, that her father wouldn't be dead, that she and Alex wouldn't have been kidnapped. That she could go back to that day at the firing range that seemed _so_ long ago now.

She sighed when her cell phone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket, seeing Morgan's number on the caller ID. "Hey, Morgan," she answered.

Except, it wasn't Morgan. The voice on the other end of the line was cold, calculating. "Dr. Bartowski," Shaw said evenly. "I need to see Chuck."

Ellie looked up at Casey slowly. "Is that so, Mr. Shaw?"

Casey's jaw tightened as he motioned for the phone, which she relinquished without a fight. "Shaw."

"Casey. Should've known," he replied. "Send Chuck up, would you? We have unfinished business."

"You think I'm just going to hand him over?"

"Yes. For the following three reasons. I'm sure any one of them would suffice, but I'll list them anyway. First, it's not that you particularly care for this assignment. Second, I have the Buy More wired and ready to explode. That's right. I may not be able to get into Castle, but I can bring it down around you. And third... perhaps most important to _you_... I have your daughter. Again. She's up in the cage with one of the other _dweebs_ that work here. The one who was kind enough to let me borrow his phone."

Casey's jaw tightened.

"Now, send Chuck, won't you?"

Casey ended the phone call, giving Ellie back her phone. "I have to go."

"Wh... John...?"

"I'll be fine," he promised. But, just in case, he stole a brief kiss from her lips before turning on his heel and walking out of the room determinedly. He didn't stop until he reached the conference room. "Pull up the feed from the Buy More."

Sarah frowned and balanced her cell phone between her shoulder and her ear and accessed the security footage as he requested-she'd been talking with the analysts at Langley and had been unable to take the brief call-in from Morgan. The store looked normal, nothing seemed out of place, so Sarah cycled through several of the angles, before stopping on the one in the cage.

Morgan and Alex sat, duct-taped to chairs.

"No," Joan managed.

"Shaw's up there," Casey said, checking the clip in his gun. "He wants Chuck, but Chuck's still in no position to do anything."

"What are you going to do?" Sarah asked. "He's an Intersect too, now."

"Doesn't matter. Just do me a favor. Get out of here. Both of you. And Chuck and Ellie, too."

"Casey," Sarah said, slowly shaking her head. "You aren't..."

"Get moving," he said, his voice booming.

"Johnny..."

"I know, Mom," he said before charging up the stairs.

Sarah and Joan looked at each other for a long moment. "We can access the cage through the passage to break room," Sarah said. "We can be up there, get Morgan and Alex out of there in ten, fifteen minutes..."

"Lead the way, dear."

* * *

Shaw was seated on the Nerd Herd desk as blissful, clueless shoppers continued to wander around the store. He smirked when he saw the Marine enter.

Casey strode toward him, ignoring the comments from Jeff, Lester and his other "coworkers" who seemed more caught up in the mundane aspects of their civilian lives. He couldn't be bothered with their trifles-he had a job to do. He had a terrorist to arrest. He stopped several feet from Shaw.

"You don't listen very well," Shaw said, sliding off the desk.

Casey merely grunted.

"Well, if _that's_ still your primary form of communication, I can see why something might get lost in caveman translation. Doesn't matter, because I will get what I want... and you and the others? You will lose _everything_."

"Well, I guess we're just going to have to see about that, won't we?"

Shaw laughed condescendingly. "You really think you can take me down, Casey? Your training is so... _pedestrian_... compared to what I can do."

"You're a walking, talking computer, sure. But you have the same weaknesses as any other overclocked processor."

"Oh, yeah? And what's that?" Shaw asked, amused.

"When I bash your head in, you won't be able to flash. You'll be just like any other worthless hunk of junk computer... nothing but scrap." Casey could tell he'd hit some kind of a nerve as Shaw's jaw tightened. "Bring it on, _runt_."

* * *

Alex closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. She was trying desperately to find her center, her chi. Considering that it was now the second time she'd been held against her will by the same person in a mere matter of days, she was having a hard time remaining calm.

Morgan tried to be helpful and sympathetic. "It's okay, Alex. We're gonna... We're gonna get out of this. It'll be... Y'know, this will all be something we can laugh about someday. Not right now. Right now it's kind of... painful and awful, but eventually. Eventually, we're gonna tell our kids about this." He paused. "Well, not... not _our_ kids but, y'know... kids that you may have... independently from me..."

She actually cracked a smile, which she wouldn't have thought possible. "Morgan?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"Well, y'know. I do what I can. When... when tied to a chair. In my own store. By someone who really ought to be dead. This sounds like a horror movie plot, really. But, uh... Just one question?"

"What's that?"

"What're you thanking me for?"

She looked at him. "Just... for being you, I guess."

He let those words sink in. He was fairly certain he'd never _ever_ heard those words from anyone. Well, maybe he'd heard it from Chuck, but he'd never heard it from someone of the opposite sex before. "You're welcome," he said gently.

Both turned, however, when the door opened. Sarah had kicked the door in, and Joan stood, at the ready, covering her.

"Oh, thank God," Morgan sighed in relief.

Joan crossed to Alex while Sarah set about freeing Morgan. "You two all right?" Joan asked.

"Much better now," admitted Alex. As soon as her arms were free, she threw them around her grandmother, holding on tightly.

"You're all right, dear," Joan promised. "But we've got to get you both out of here."

"The store's still packed as well," said Sarah as Morgan was finally released from his chair. "If it's ready to blow like Shaw says... then we need to evacuate the rest of the store, too."

"We go into the main store, call them out... not sure that's our best course of action," said Joan with a frown.

Morgan thought for a moment. While he didn't have the spy knowledge to draw from, he was pretty good with common sense most days. "Got it," he said before crossing to the wall and pulling the emergency fire alarm.

Sarah smiled. "Brilliant, Morgan. Now, you three, back down the hatch, get Chuck and Ellie ready to go if necessary."

"Where are you going?" asked Joan.

"I can't let my partner have all the fun by himself," she said. "Go."

* * *

When the fire alarm began blaring, the patrons raced for the front doors. The sound momentarily distracted Casey, which gave Shaw the opening opportunity he had hoped for. Shaw was relentless in his opening volley, powering through a roundhouse kick to Casey's head.

While the Marine saw stars, he wasn't about to let Shaw get the upper hand, not without one hell of a fight.

Shaw was able to dodge several of Casey's attacks, but not all. "I thought you were better than this, Casey. I thought you were... some kinda _hero_."

"Don't really care what you think, moron," Casey said before connecting a wicked right cross.

It took Shaw a moment to shake off the punch but when he did, he laughed. "You realize, don't you, that we're not that different from each other."

Casey grunted, missing again. "We're complete opposites."

Shaw took advantage of the miss, shoving the bigger Marine into the Nerd Herd desk. "The only difference that I can see is that I opened my eyes, that I came to realize that our 'government' isn't the protector you claim they are."

Fueled by rage at the anti-American sentiment, Casey bombarded Shaw with a barrage of punches.

Shaw ducked, sweeping Casey's feet out from beneath him. "Hear me out," he said with a sneer.

The fall knocked the wind out of Casey, and he stayed down for a second, to catch his breath.

"Our _government_, in their _infinite _wisdom, decides things based on... on what? On fear? On accusations? On _corruption_, Casey. And you..." He scoffed. "You're a card-carrying member of the insanity. And I was, too. Until... Until they _killed my wife_!"

Casey narrowed his eyes, pushing himself back up. "Don't talk to me about what the government can take away. They took away my fiancee."

"Who was pregnant. With _your_ child."

"Yeah," he said, wiping the blood from his mouth. "Speaking of my child... _You're _the son of a bitch who took her from me," he said, launching into a new, fierce attack on Shaw. Each blow was met with another grunt, another comment. "You took _Ellie _from me. I know exactly what _my_ government is capable of doing, and _exactly _what those crooked enough to wrap themselves in the flag are capable of, too, Shaw."

Shaw, in blinding fury, accessed the advanced skills in the Intersect. Up until now, it had been his own skills, his own talents. The return attack on Casey was vicious, unforgiving.

Casey found himself flying backward, unable to prevent himself from careening into a shelf, knocking it, and others, over like dominoes. He tried at once to get back to his feet but his body rebelled.

By comparison, Shaw looked fresh, rested. He straightened his shirt, dusting something from his shoulder. "I told you, Casey. All I'm after is Chuck." Amid the annoying fire alarm blaring, he heard a sound he wasn't expecting to hear, that of a gun cocking. As he turned, he saw Sarah standing there on the other side of the barrel.

"You can't always get what you want," she said defiantly.

* * *

Ellie's eyes filled with tears when Shaw started punching Sarah. The level of violence in the Buy More was outrageous. Even when Casey got to his feet, even when the two of them tried to take on Shaw together, they couldn't. He was just too good, too strong.

She cried out when she saw Casey hit the ground, hard, after taking a toaster oven to the face.

She'd never felt more helpless in all her life, and that included being held captive by Shaw and his goons.

"Sis?"

She turned, shocked, to see Chuck up and stumbling into the conference room.

"Where is everybody?"

"Ch-Chuck, you should... you should be resting," she said, angrily drying the tears that had slipped from her eyes.

"Wh..." He stopped when he saw the scene unfolding on the large flat screen at the front of the room. "No..."

"Chuck, I can't... I can't lose everybody, not in one week. Dad's gone, and John... John's not going to make it. And if that _Shaw_ guy is steamrolling through John and Sarah, it's only a matter of time before he gets down here, before we're _all_ dead."

"It won't come to that," Chuck said calmly. "Everything will be all right, El. We're not losing anybody else, not today." He quietly headed up the stairs.

"Chuck? Where are you going?" she asked, following him.

"I need you to get Morgan and Alex and Joan out of here. Can you do that for me?"

"Not without knowing what you're doing," she said, shaking her head vehemently.

"Well, you're going to _have_ to," he said sternly.

It stunned Ellie. Chuck had never been one to give orders _ever_, she was pretty sure. And he'd certainly never issued one to her before. All she could do was watch as Chuck disappeared into the back of the Orange Orange.

* * *

Sarah, chained to the Nerd Herd desk with her _own_ handcuffs, looked up when the front door to the Buy More opened and Chuck strolled in. Her momentary gladness of seeing him up and alert faded quickly to concern and worry. Chuck, as much as he would want to save them, wouldn't be able to. He wasn't himself, not without the governor, not without the ability to flash.

Chuck surveyed his surroundings. Casey was on the ground, unmoving, but there was at least a somewhat steady rise and fall of the Marine's chest. And Sarah... Sarah was looking at him pleadingly.

Shaw, however, smirked. "Well. It's about time you showed up, Chuck."

Chuck smarted off. "You know how I like to make entrances."

Shaw slowly lifted his gun, aiming it square at Chuck's head.

The geek shook his head. "I think we both know that's not what you want."

The veteran agent chuckled. "I suppose you're right. Well played," he said before removing the clip and removing the round from the chamber before dropping the gun and all its pieces to the ground.

"Chuck, no," Sarah said, shaking her head.

Chuck never looked over at her. His dark eyes never once left his target, his mark. He wasn't about to give Shaw an inch, not if he could help it.

"Let's see what you've got," Shaw said.

Chuck's eyes unfocused. The flash came in spurts, fizzling out before it ever got very far. It made his head feel heavy, made him dizzy. He braced a hand on a nearby display to remain standing, to stay up.

"_Chuck!_" Sarah screamed, fighting hard against her restraint. Maybe she could break the bar off the desk. Or maybe her cuffs would turn out to be faulty. She needed a miracle and she'd take it in any form she could, because she couldn't watch Chuck die.

Shaw offered a laugh.

"Y'know, if you wanna make this more fair," Chuck began, "if you wanna see if this is actually _doable_, if you want a _real_ fight... you should take off the governor."

"Why would I want to do that?"

"Oh, I don't know," said Chuck sarcastically. "Maybe because if you beat me _with it_, you'll never know for sure who the better Intersect is."

"Doesn't matter, does it? If I win?"

"I guess if you really _want _to cheat, then that's entirely up to you, isn't it?" asked Chuck. "I mean, I can't take the governor from you, even if I wanted to at this point. And you've sufficiently put my team on lock down... Casey is still breathing, isn't he?" He chanced a brief glance at the fallen Marine.

"There's your problem again, Chuck. Your concern for those around you... Your greatest weakness."

"Really? 'Cause I always thought they were my greatest _strength_."

"I'm sure someone finds that Pollyanna attitude endearing," Shaw said, glancing back at Sarah, who stilled under his gaze. "But, Chuck, someday you'll have to learn that the best spies are the ones who have _nothing _left to lose. Perhaps that day is today. The last thing you'll figure out, as the light finally fades from your eyes. I think that'll be downright _poetic_, don't you?"

Chuck said nothing in retort, he just rushed at Shaw. The first few flailing fists missed, easily dodged by the _working_ Intersect.

Sarah desperately pulled at her cuffs. She knew her wrist would hurt when she was finally freed, but it didn't matter. She needed to _get_ free first. When she still couldn't make the cuff, the bar, or her bones budge, she began looking for something she might be able to use to pick the lock.

Shaw was easily able to connect with the lanky, gangly nerd, sending Chuck careening to the floor in the middle of the aisle.

"No," Sarah whispered. "C'mon, Chuck, get up," she murmured, trying desperately to reach the paperclip cup on the desk.

"I think we could hardly call that a fight, Chuck. Another governor might've made it interesting... or it might've just prolonged your _pathetic _destiny."

Chuck moaned in agony as Shaw dug the toe of his boot into the geek's side. "Guess we'll never know if you're _really _the best there is," Chuck slurred, a lopsided smile taking to his pained face.

"You don't know how to lose, do you, Chuck?" Shaw asked, hauling the fallen Intersect to his feet. "You didn't know how to lose your civilian life... didn't know how to lose Sarah to _me_."

"Game's not over yet," Chuck promised.

Shaw released Chuck. It wasn't a menacing maneuver. It was just a simple letting go.

Chuck collapsed under his own weight, hitting the ground hard.

"You're out of extra lives now, Bartowski."

* * *

Stay tuned...

Lines from the next installment:

"Wh.. Hey, wait!" he said, taking the stairs two at a time to catch up. "El, where are you going?"

"I can't sit here, Morgan. I will not watch it anymore," she said, nodding to the screen. "I have an obligation, as a doctor, to help."

"This isn't... that isn't going to help them, not if they're all..."

"Exactly," she said. "So, Morgan, you know what you have to do, right?" She waited until she saw recognition in his familiar eyes.

"Ellie, c'mon, this... this isn't good. This isn't..."

"See if you can figure out how to contact their superior officer, would you? That might... that might help."

Morgan glanced back at the conference room, wondering where he might _begin_ to find the phone number or Skype name or _whatever_ for the General. By the time he looked back at where Ellie _had_ been standing, she was gone. "Not good," he whispered. "_Not_ good..."


	10. Chapter 9

For notes and disclaimer, please see part one.

Here's a couple things you might need to know or maybe you just forgot: While the Team tries to figure out how to find Shaw, Shaw waltzes right into the Buy More, taking Morgan and Alex hostage. Again. He calls Ellie to send Chuck out, but Casey goes instead, hoping to buy everyone else enough time to get out. The battle that ensues isn't good for the Marine, who winds up unconscious in Buy More debris. Sarah and Joan rescue Morgan and Alex, and Morgan pulls the fire alarm to evacuate the store. Chuck realizes that everyone he loves is in trouble and goes to face Shaw himself, but it isn't looking good for the original Intersect either.

* * *

By the time Joan, Alex and Morgan returned to the conference room in Castle, Ellie was ransacking the storage units.

"Whoa, hey, what are you looking for?" asked Morgan.

"Medical supplies. Anybody know where they keep them here?" she asked, not even bothering to glance up from her search. While she didn't find what she was looking for in one drawer, she found something that might help. She slipped the set of lock picks into her pants pocket.

"Uh... I think over here, maybe," Morgan said, leading the way to where he was fairly certain he'd seen gauze and the like. He opened a cabinet that Ellie hadn't touched yet. "Aha!"

Ellie, who had grabbed a black bag on an earlier sortie, filled it with everything she could think that would be beneficial.

"What are you doing, dear?" Joan asked worriedly.

"I can't sit by, not when I know they need me up there," she said.

Alex looked at the main screen, at the remnants of the Buy More. She was looking specifically for her father. She saw Sarah. She saw Chuck on the ground... She gasped when she saw combat boots. "Dad..."

"He's going to be okay, Alex. Your father has always been, will always be, one of the strongest men alive," Joan said, wrapping her arms around her granddaughter.

Even Morgan could hear the fear underlying in the veteran agent's voice, however. When he turned, he saw that Ellie was quietly slipping up the stairs to the Orange Orange. "Wh.. Hey, wait!" he said, taking the stairs two at a time to catch up. "El, where are you going?"

"I can't sit here, Morgan. I will not watch it anymore," she said, nodding to the screen. "I have an obligation, as a doctor, to help."

"This isn't... that isn't going to help them, not if they're all..."

"Exactly," she said. "So, Morgan, you know what you have to do, right?" She waited until she saw recognition in his familiar eyes.

"Ellie, c'mon, this... this isn't good. This isn't..."

"See if you can figure out how to contact their superior officer, would you? That might... that might help."

Morgan glanced back at the conference room, wondering where he might _begin_ to find the phone number or Skype name or _whatever_ for the General. By the time he looked back at where Ellie _had_ been standing, she was gone. "Not good," he whispered. "_Not_ good..."

* * *

The images he saw weren't the ones he was expecting. He saw his father. He saw Ellie. He saw his childhood home. He guessed maybe that was what people meant by having one's life flash before one's eyes. Maybe he really was close to death.

But he remembered something he'd long since forgotten as he lay there. He remembered his father's office, the computers set up there. He remembered a barrage of images on different screens. He remembered watching, taking it all in at such a young age.

He hadn't fallen that time. He hadn't passed out. He'd just taken it. He had _always_ been the Intersect.

When he opened his eyes again, when he saw the strobe lights flashing, he realized that his head didn't hurt as much, that he felt rejuvenated. Even though he knew his nose was bleeding, even though he knew was already covered in bruises, he _knew_ it was time to get back up, to dust himself off, and to _finish_ what Shaw had started.

He _easily_ jumped to his feet.

Shaw looked at Chuck curiously.

"Sorry about that," Chuck said in typical Chuck-fashion. "Seems I needed to reboot."

Shaw sneered, using a metal beam from one of the displays as a quarterstaff.

Chuck easily dodged the attacks, blocking everything Shaw could throw.

It was then that Ellie slipped into the store, undetected by the fighters. While she was glad to see Chuck was up and moving, she wasn't thrilled that they were still in danger. Swallowing hard, she slipped around the displays and aisles, coming up behind Sarah.

Sarah jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder, turning to see Ellie, of all people.

"Here," the doctor whispered, pressing the lock picks into Sarah's hands.

The spy was grateful for the delivery, not wasting a moment before she started to free herself.

Ellie, meanwhile, continued to slide toward Casey as quietly as she could. He was bleeding from his nose, from the corners of his mouth. There were several mild lacerations, things that could be easily covered with a bandage or two. His breathing was shallow, however, which concerned her. She was _exceedingly _thankful, however, that he wasn't suffering from a gunshot wound this time as she set about beginning first aid.

Shaw and Chuck were completely oblivious to the field medic mere feet from them, continuing their battle. Shaw was having a hard time keeping up, blocking Chuck's attacks. It wasn't fair. It wasn't _right_. Shaw had the governor. He had the latest Intersect model. He was the kind of agent that the Intersect was _built_ for, not the geek that was thoroughly kicking his ass.

Ellie glanced up when she heard the sputtering of someone in pain, of someone in _trouble_. She was shocked when she realized that her _brother_ had Shaw by the throat.

"You have to do it," Shaw gasped. "You have to kill me."

She couldn't watch. She couldn't watch her brother _kill_ someone. She returned her attention to Casey, trying hard to battle back the images that flooded her memory, of when she'd had a gun trained on Catalyst in the courtyard, when it was kill or be killed.

Chuck released Shaw, taking a step back. "Nah. No thanks. I've already _done_ that. Don't need to again."

Shaw recognized his opportunity and began to lunge at Chuck. But the Ring agent fell onto the floor, hard, thanks to a swift metal beam to the back of Shaw's head, delivered by Sarah.

"Hey," Chuck said, grinning at her.

Sarah moved, taking the governor from Shaw's wrist and slipping it back onto its rightful owner, Chuck's wrist.

After the reboot, he'd felt better. Once the governor was on his wrist, he felt back to _normal_. He closed his eyes, reveling in the calm that washed over him, realizing fully what he'd been missing. He let out a slow sigh before tugging Sarah into his arms for a hug.

"It's all over," Sarah whispered.

It was only then that he realized his _sister_ was in the room with them. "Ellie?" he asked, pulling back from Sarah.

Ellie looked up from where she was knelt next to Casey, in and amongst the broken merchandise. "I need a gurney; I'm afraid to move him. I'm not sure what the damage is."

Chuck looked up as Morgan and Alex entered the front door, with Joan right behind.

"Guys, I hate to remind you, but the man did set the place to explode," Morgan said. "We should get outta here. Bomb squad and local PD are showing up in droves outside."

"Go," Chuck said, shooing them out.

"Wait, Morgan, what about an ambulance?" Ellie asked.

Morgan looked down, then nodded. "On it!" he said before sprinting out of the store again.

"Sarah, see if any of our guys are out there, so we can transport Shaw into custody," Chuck said. "Everybody else, out. Seriously. Ellie, Casey and I won't be far behind."

Alex could barely breathe, seeing her father lying there like that, and Ellie worriedly over him. Joan had to gently pull her out into the evening air.

A perimeter was being set up, pushing all the patrons and employees further and further back. Morgan hustled the paramedics inside, and they loaded the Marine onto their gurney before wheeling him out. Ellie was never far from his side and essentially commandeered the ambulance.

Joan and Alex remained close by, just in case.

Once Shaw was taken into the back of an unmarked CIA transport vehicle, Chuck, Sarah, Morgan, and other agents returned to the building, to look for the explosives Shaw had planed, as well as the detonator.

* * *

Casey came to, groaning in pain.

"At ease, Marine," Ellie murmured. "Think you've managed to crack a rib. Your breathing's been off."

"Doc?" he asked.

"Hey," she said softly.

He blinked, opening his blue eyes to look at her. Slowly, he reached out, cupping her face in his hand again. "Where's everybody else?"

"Everybody's fine," she promised. "Shaw's in custody. Chuck's got the governor. Your mom and your daughter are right outside this ambulance."

"Walker?"

"She and Chuck and Morgan and some others are looking for the bomb," she said quietly.

He struggled to sit up. "I should..."

"You should lay back down," she chided. "Doctor's orders."

"I'll be fine."

"If you think I'm letting you out of this ambulance, mister, you've got another thing coming..."

The feisty tone, he knew, was one he really shouldn't mess with, but it was kind of _hot_ to see her in doctor-mode. "It's a matter of national security-"

"And the agents inside have it handled," Ellie said as the ambulance _shook_ with tremendous fury. The sound of the explosion was deafening. Ellie felt her heart sink as she turned, looking at the billowing smoke and the flames lapping at the sky. "Chuck... _CHUCK!_" She got to her feet and turned to leave.

Casey, ignoring the pain he suddenly found himself in, grabbed tightly to her arm. "Ellie, no."

"J-John, it's... No, I..."

"Stay in the ambulance, Ellie," he said as he jumped out of the back, crossing toward the police line.

Ellie watched, in shock and horror, as Casey took off running _to_ the building fire.

Joan wordlessly moved to the ambulance, climbing inside and wrapping Ellie in a supportive hug.

The doctor couldn't take it. The _intensity_ of the past several days, the _enormity_ of everything came crashing down around her. Ellie turned, accepting the embrace from Joan, closing her eyes tightly as the tears fell, as the sobs wracked her body.

Alex easily caught up to her father as he jumped the police line. A handful of agents and first responders were just outside the store, just beyond the reach of the fire and the broken glass.

"Bartowski!" Casey bellowed. "Walker!"

"Morgan?" Alex called.

As the agents began to pick themselves off the ground, Casey recognized a certain curly-headed kid, and the blonde beside him. And even the _troll_ with them as well. He moved forward, offering a hand to Chuck.

"Casey? Man, you really _are_ the angel of life, aren't'cha?" asked Chuck, who accepted the Marine's help.

Casey could only grunt. "Go see your sister before she has a heart attack," he barked.

"El?"

"Ambulance," Casey told him, turning his attention to help his partner while Alex brushed the debris and soot off Morgan's clothes.

Chuck took off running as Sarah got to her feet. "You all right, Walker?" Casey asked.

The blonde nodded. "Thought you were out of commission."

"Down," he said. "Never out."

Sarah could hear the slight wheeze in his voice, however, and slipped an arm around Casey to help him away from the fire, back to the ambulance.

By the time Chuck reached the ambulance, Ellie was completely inconsolable. She was _certain_ that her brother was gone, that Sarah and Morgan hadn't made it either. That she'd lost practically _everyone_.

Joan smiled a little at Chuck, who reached out, placing a hand on his sister's shoulder.

"El?" When she didn't respond, he tried again. "Hey, sis...? You gonna turn around for a second?" Part of him was shocked at what he saw. His sister, always so strong, always a force to be reckoned with, looked so vulnerable, so weak.

"Ch-Chuck?" she asked in disbelief.

"I'm okay, sis. Promise. It'll take a lot more than bombs and terrorists and stolen watches to get rid of me," he told her.

She latched onto her brother, holding onto him tightly.

"I'm okay," he whispered again.

* * *

The interior of the Buy More was a total loss. More than that, Castle was in shambles. Shaw had known exactly where to place the charges to ensure that the Human Intersect Project would be set back for months, and he'd succeeded.

The government's plan had been sketchy initially, resulting in several hours-long meetings from Casey's living room, arguing over the pros and cons of the plans. Both Chuck and Casey had vehemently opposed the CIA and NSA buying the property and opening their own Buy More franchise, erecting it in the exact same spot. Beckman had been insistent, however, and Sarah had begrudgingly agreed with the General, saying that it would probably be for the best, that any enemy agents who once considered the Buy More the hotbed of spy activity would think that they wouldn't be that _insane_, to rebuild in the exact same spot.

In the end, construction began on the new Buy More, on the secured Castle beneath it, performed by the highly trained CIA construction crew who had often put the Buy More back together after the occasional fire-fight since the start of Team Bartowski's adventures in the retail jungle.

The only good thing, in Sarah's view, was that the Orange Orange was not a part of the new plan. There would be no separate cover for her. The entire Buy More property would become the greatest home court advantage in the war on terror in Burbank. The store would be equipped with new security measures, new counter-intelligence stations.

And Beckman herself would oversee the project personally, taking over responsibilities as store manager.

Until such time as the building was completed, however, they had to work from somewhere, and Casey's living room was it. He had all the security measures, all of the encrypted lines right there at his fingertips. It made life easy.

And there was no point in running to some greasy fast food place at the mall. Food was plentiful at Ellie's across the courtyard.

Joan and Alex were over nearly daily, helping Ellie with perfecting the latest new recipe, or enjoying an old family favorite. It was a great comfort to Ellie, having _family_ surround her. After the loss of her father _again_, the more _permanent_ loss, it was important to her to remember that family didn't end with blood, that the adopted kind were just as vital to survival and happiness.

Being Sunday, Ellie was bound and determined to get back to her traditional family dinner night. Alex had helped shine the silver and set the table, while Ellie and Joan fussed over the roasting ham. Bread was baked, pies were cooling, and the side dishes were all awaiting their marching orders.

Making dinner for seven people was something akin to moving an army, Ellie guessed, with the way that she and Joan had planned their cooking attack.

By the time six o'clock rolled around, however, everything was done. Ellie, Joan and Alex had changed out of their more casual cooking clothes and into something more befitting a fine family dinner.

Ellie fussed with her hair as the doorbell rang. As she had expected, Morgan was the first to arrive, dressed in his best suit.

"I couldn't help it, Ellie. I had to follow my nose over a few minutes early."

"You're right on time, Morgan... But you realize, don't you, you have to wait on the others to arrive before you can eat?"

Morgan, who was trying to take a peek at the bountiful spread on the table, suddenly stopped cold. "I do?"

Ellie nodded.

"Well, I guess... if I _have _to," he said with a sigh. He rolled his eyes playfully and when they stilled, they landed on Alex, standing with her grandmother further in Ellie's living room. "I'll manage," he said, puffing up.

Ellie watched as Morgan strode directly toward Casey's daughter, fighting back a smile.

Chuck and Sarah arrived next, and Sarah brought a bottle of chilled wine.

Ellie hugged her brother as he walked in, followed by Sarah. "Let's get this thing opened, huh? Family dinners are definitely cause for a celebration," she said, accepting the bottle. As she wandered into the kitchen, it was very clear who _wasn't_ there yet.

Chuck whispered to Sarah: "Do we need to go get the big guy?"

Sarah shrugged. She couldn't imagine Casey being _late_ to dinner.

Ellie filled a tray with wine glasses and dug through the gizmo drawer to find her corkscrew. It was nice, to hear her living room filled with laughter, with warmth. She smiled a little. Life really would go on after disasters. She'd be all right.

As she filled the glasses, she heard her doorbell ring again and glanced at the living room.

"I'll get it!" Chuck announced, heading for the door.

Casey stood, framed in the doorway, with a bouquet of brightly colored lilies. He wasn't dressed in his usual black. He wore dark brown pants and a cream and blue striped shirt, open at the neck, with the sleeves rolled up slightly. "Bartowski."

"Aww, gee, Case, you _shouldn't_ have," teased Chuck. Kidding aside, he nodded toward the kitchen. "She's in there," he said quietly.

Casey nodded. "Thanks."

Chuck smiled knowingly, looking at Sarah.

Sarah, however, was clueless. "What's going on?"

Instead of answering, his smile grew wider.

Casey lingered in the doorway to the kitchen. "Hey, Ellie."

She smiled up at him. "I guess, since you brought _flowers_, I'll forgive this tardiness to family dinner."

"I promise, I had a good excuse," he said, entering the kitchen fully, offering her the flowers. "Let me take care of the wine."

She accepted the bouquet, inhaling their sweet fragrance before setting about finding a vase. "You didn't have to, John, really."

"I wanted to."

As she filled the vase, she unwrapped the flowers, noting that he'd even gone so far as to write on the card. When she'd met him, she never would've imagined he was that sweet, that he had a romantic heart buried beneath flack jackets and scowling growls.

Casey filled each glass with precision. After all, he'd been a bartender more than once in his storied spy career. He kept waiting to hear something from her, though, some kind of reaction to the card.

She set it aside, however, to read it later, not under the prying eyes of the rest of the family.

As Casey carried the tray into the living room, Chuck shot him a worried look. The Marine shrugged a shoulder as he handed out the glasses.

Ellie, meanwhile, carried the bouquet into the dining room, setting it in the center of the table. As she rejoined everyone in the living room, she accepted a glass from Casey. "I'd like to make a toast," she said.

Chuck shot Casey a thumb's up.

"I, uh... I used to think," she began, "that our family was small. Tiny. For the longest time, it was just me and Chuck, really. Dad was always..." Her voice broke, and Casey placed a reassuring hand on the small of her back. "Dad was always on the periphery. He was around, but he was never there." She looked at Alex. "But that didn't mean he loved us any less. And it didn't mean he didn't worry about us. He was trying to protect us. He was trying to do what he thought was right. Over these past few days and weeks, I've come to realize just how strong, how powerful our family really is. Because it's not just me and Chuck anymore. Really, it never was. Dad was always there. And his presence will be greatly missed. But I was wrong, thinking that it was just me and Chuck versus the world... There was always Morgan."

He stood a little taller, grinning.

"And then there was Sarah and John," she added. "And now, there's Alex and Joan, too. I think that we make a pretty good team. A really _great_ family."

"Hear, hear!" Morgan said happily, raising his glass.

After a round of chinking glasses, Chuck looked again at Casey. "Hey, El, what about a little music? Huh? Really get this party _rockin_'?"

Ellie laughed a little. "You know where the stereo is, Chuck."

"Hold this, sweetie?" he asked, offering Sarah his glass.

"What are you _up_ to?" Sarah asked quietly as Chuck crossed to her stereo.

"That was a beautiful speech," Casey told her.

"Well, it's the truth," she said, looking up at him.

The upbeat, happy strains of Eddie Money soon filled the air. Chuck spun, dancing along, nodding at the Marine.

Casey sighed a little, but managed to crack a smile. "Ellie, I, um... I have something that I'd like to say, too."

Ellie motioned to Chuck to kill the music.

"It's... fine, actually," he said. "Ellie, there's something that I've come to realize. Something that I've put off, something that I've ignored for far too long."

She blinked, wondering what he was talking about.

"Our lives are insane. They're filled with darkness, but it's for the greatest cause imaginable. Since I met you, though, it's been... different. My life has been _better, _brighter."

Ellie's eyes widened slowly.

"I'm not the best at speeches. Or at expressing my emotions or my feelings. But one thing I am absolutely certain of, Ellie, is that so many of our memories have been tied to spy life. They've been tied to missions or gunfights or explosions... And I don't want that to be the only thing our lives are based on, the only things we'll remember."

"John?"

"That's why I have two tickets to paradise," he said, begrudgingly borrowing the title from the song. He pulled the airplane tickets from his pants pocket. "I hope that you'll come with me to Tahiti."

Ellie nearly _dropped_ her glass. "I..."

"Take a vacation with me, Ellie. Let's escape for a few weeks."

Sarah looked at Chuck, who had such a pleased, relaxed look on his face. Alex and Morgan exchanged looks as well. Joan loved that her son looked so happy.

"Oh, my God," Ellie whispered.

Casey wasn't sure if that was a good reaction or a bad one. "Uh..."

"Yes!" she said, barely getting her wine glass on the table before vaulting into his arms.

Casey held her tightly, closing his eyes.

Chuck cheered, and Morgan followed suit.

Sarah, however, had a feeling there was still something Chuck hadn't told her. "There's more to this plan, isn't there?"

Chuck smiled at her. "I'm afraid I've been sworn to secrecy. I could tell you, but then Casey'd have to kill me. And I'm pretty sure none of us want that."

* * *

End...

For now...


End file.
